THE OAK REMEMBERS
Race, Execution, and the Living Witness on Buffalo Bayou
by S. M. Austen (Author)  Format: Paperback
Houston’s True Hanging Tree
For generations, Houstonians have been told they know where the city’s historic hanging tree stands.
They are wrong.
This is the story of the real one.
Its roots reach into ancient Indigenous history. Its branches witnessed execution, racial violence, Reconstruction, yellow fever, and the floods that repeatedly reshaped Buffalo Bayou.
From the worlds of the Atakapa and Karankawa through Houston’s rise, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the modern era, The Oak Remembers follows a living witness through generations of history the city has largely paved over.
The tree survived. The history beneath it did too.
A CLOSER LOOK INSIDE The Oak Remembers
A Closer Look Inside
Read select pages from The Oak Remembers book and discover the stories behind Houston’s most carefully preserved secret.
Click + for samples
The original Hanging Tree in Houston
The Oaks Remembers TOC: 30 chapters
Read a little of the prologue
Chapter One of The Oaks Remembers
Stories Rooted in Houston
BEFORE HOUSTON
Discover the Indigenous peoples and landscapes that shaped the region long before the city existed.
A CITY TAKES ROOT
Follow Houston’s beginnings along Buffalo Bayou and the people, ambitions, conflicts, and hardships that shaped its growth.
THE HISTORY THAT REMAINS
Trace the city’s history through war, Reconstruction, racial violence, epidemics, floods, and changing systems of justice.