Information from local records can be used in a variety of ways to strengthen and add interesting detail to undergraduate history courses on slavery in the United States. Specifically, the author describes the use of county records to teach about slavery in Texas before the Civil War. Four sources of records can be consulted: (1) United States Census records, which provide information on family characteristics of slaves and owners and on the size and productivity of farms, (2) state tax rolls, which reveal individuals' landholding and slaveholding status, (3) probate records, which include wills, inventories and appraisals of estates, and records of estate administration, and (4) slave narratives, which furnish transcripts from interviews with ex-slaves conducted during the 1930s. All these records are available from national and state archives or from local county clerks' offices. Information from the records can be used in a variety of ways. Their data show that the proportion of slaveholders and slaves in Texas was comparable to the proportion for the South as a whole, give interesting information about the price of slaves compared to the price of land, illustrate reactions of slaves and owners to the institution of slavery, and show how slave families were kept together or separated throughout generations. (AV)