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Residences

[cropped] Civilian and Galveston Gazette July 22 1851.jpg
Until the 1850s, enslaved people had some opportunities to rent their own properties in Galveston's backalleys. In an editorial in The Civilian and Galveston Gazette, H. Stuart bemoaned that there were at least forty houses occupied by enslaved people by 1851. 
Here's an excerpt: 

"This matter has been the cause of no little trouble to the authorities and complaint by the citizens. There are upwards of forty houses in town occupied exclusively by negroes, and it is next to impossible, with the limited police of the city, to prevent occasional disorders among them."

As indicated in the final lines of Stuart's editorial, white citizens were encouraged to report any violations of these living ordinances, the maximum punishment for which was 39 lashes for the enslaved person and a $50 fine for anyone renting to the slave as well as the enslaved person's owner.1  

  1. Beasley 16↩

Texas State Gazette. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 48, Ed. 1, Saturday, July 22, 1854 Page 3 of 8.jpg
By 1854, white Galvestonians apparently became increasingly incensed by enslaved people living their lives outside of their labor obligations. Interactions between enslaved people and poor, working-class white citizens seems to have been a particularly sore point for the author. The article on the left articulates an intensified call for citizen reporting and patrolling. Here are some excerpts:

"We have heard amog our citizens of late much complaint in regard to the unlicensed conduct of our slave population, and have been frequently asked "do our stature books contain any patrol law, and if they do, why is it not enforced by our officers? 

"There never was a time when, or a community in which, the rigid enforcement of the laws concerning slaves was more needed than at this time, in this city and its environs. Negroes are frequently seen strolling about our streets at all hours of night, without license from their masters, and sometimes carrying about their persons loaded fire-arms and other deadly weapons... Then we have in our community not a few low, unprincipled white men, who associate almost entirely with negroes, either because they wish to effect some evil design, or because they are conscious that they do not deserve the respect of decent persons of their own color, and consequently, resort to negrodom for society and sympathy."

In 1855, Galveston's aldermen decided that enslaved people were not allowed to live separately from their owners at all, unless they were hired by other white employers as domestic servants -- in that case, they could reside on their employer's property.
Slave ordinance_Galveston City Directory 1859-60.jpg
Published in the 1859-60 Galveston City Directory, the ordinances pictured on the right indicate tight restrictions on enslaved people's daily lives. Not only could bondspeople no longer rent property, but they were forbidden from independently providing goods or services, drinking or owning firearms, and had to abide by strict curfews.
Trying to locate where enslaved people actually resided is extremely difficult in urban environments where citizens usually own multiple properties and land holdings are constantly changing. Unlike plantation sites, archaeological investigations of urban slavery sites are substantially hindered by contemporary business and residence developments. Galveston poses especially difficult challenges due to the many severe storms that have washed away most of the island's antebellum history. 
Still, an effort should be made to try and see where enslaved people may have lived. The map below uses census data to locate potential sites of residences of enslaved people. To see how the cityscape has changed over time, click on the little black icon with stacked layers to toggle between an 1845 map of Galveston, an 1859 map, and a contemporary OpenStreetMap that shows modern roads and buildings. 
Residences