Fort Bend County was one of Texas's major plantation and slavery counties

Plantation farming took hold in Fort Bend County starting in the 1820s. Planters grew cotton and sugarcane using enslaved labor. By 1850, Fort Bend was one of only six Texas counties where Black residents outnumbered white residents. By 1860, more than 4,000 people were enslaved there.

In 1843, the Williams brothers built a raw-sugar mill on Oakland Plantation. That sugar industry later became the Imperial Sugar Company. It ran in Sugar Land for over a century.

This history shapes who lives in Fort Bend County today. The county's African American community has deep roots going back to slavery, freedom after the Civil War, and the long fight for political power.