Thousands of enslaved African-Americans lived near Houston before the U.S. Civil War. Many of them worked on sugar and cotton plantations near the city, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. In 1860, 49% of the city's population was enslaved. During the early 1900's African Americans started to settle in the community that was found by H.H.Holmes oldest African-American neighborhood in southern Houston, was first platted in 1912. When the community opened in the 1910s, H. H. Holmes, the founder, named the land Sunny Side. By the 1940s, residents established a water district and a volunteer fire department. The City of Houston annexed Sunnyside in 1956.