Skip to content

Your cart

Your cart is empty

Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South

SKU: 9781469630007
Regular price $29.95
Unit price
per 
Fast Shipping
Secure payment
Availability
 
Shipping calculated at checkout.

    • 2015 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize, Association of Black Women Historians

      2016 Darlene Clark Hine Award, Organization of American Historians

      2015 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize

      2016 Philip Taft Labor History Award, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations / Labor and Working-Class History Association

      2016 Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, Georgia Historical Society

      Ida B. Wells Tribute Award, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

      In 1868, the state of Georgia began to make its rapidly growing population of prisoners available for hire. The resulting convict leasing system ensnared not only men but also African American women, who were forced to labor in camps and factories to make profits for private investors. In this vivid work of history, Talitha L. LeFlouria draws from a rich array of primary sources to piece together the stories of these women, recounting what they endured in Georgia's prison system and what their labor accomplished. LeFlouria argues that African American women's presence within the convict lease and chain-gang systems of Georgia helped to modernize the South by creating a new and dynamic set of skills for black women. At the same time, female inmates struggled to resist physical and sexual exploitation and to preserve their human dignity within a hostile climate of terror. This revealing history redefines the social context of black women’s lives and labor in the New South and allows their stories to be told for the first time.

    2015 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize, Association of Black Women Historians

    2016 Darlene Clark Hine Award, Organization of American Historians

    2015 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize

    2016 Philip Taft Labor History Award, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations / Labor and Working-Class History Association

    2016 Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, Georgia Historical Society

    Ida B. Wells Tribute Award, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

    In 1868, the state of Georgia began to make its rapidly growing population of prisoners available for hire. The resulting convict leasing system ensnared not only men but also African American women, who were forced to labor in camps and factories to make profits for private investors. In this vivid work of history, Talitha L. LeFlouria draws from a rich array of primary sources to piece together the stories of these women, recounting what they endured in Georgia's prison system and what their labor accomplished. LeFlouria argues that African American women's presence within the convict lease and chain-gang systems of Georgia helped to modernize the South by creating a new and dynamic set of skills for black women. At the same time, female inmates struggled to resist physical and sexual exploitation and to preserve their human dignity within a hostile climate of terror. This revealing history redefines the social context of black women’s lives and labor in the New South and allows their stories to be told for the first time.