Left of Black host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal sits down with Dr. Talitha L. LeFlouria to discuss her new book, “Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South.”

Telfair Museums and the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation present the 2019 Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Lecture by Melissa L. Cooper, Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University, and Talitha LeFlouria, the Lisa Smith Discovery Associate Professor in African and African-American Studies at the University of Virginia. Cooper and LeFlouria are coeditors of a forthcoming scholarly work produced in partnership with Telfair Museums that explores the legacy of slavery in Savannah and surrounding communities in the region.

This day-long symposium kicked off a year of events at UC Berkeley to mark the 400 year anniversary of the beginning of slavery in North America. The events are being co-organized by the Haas Institute, the African American studies and history departments, the African American Student Development Center, and the Black Staff & Faculty Organization.

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, factories, and chain-gangs to make profits for private investors and the state. Dr.Talitha L. LeFlouria of the University of Virginia discusses the plight of incarcerated black women in the post-Civil War South, and the attempts made by female prisoners to resist commodification and physical and sexual exploitation

Lecture by award-winning historian Talitha L. LeFlouria (University of Virginia) on the plight of post-Civil War black women prisoners and their day-to-day struggles to overcome work-related abuses and violence, based on LeFlouria’s award winning book. This event was the 2016 UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History Distinguished Annual Lecture and a part of the 2016-2017 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series.

Participants spoke about the study of African-American history and the importance of preserving historically black sites and facilities across the country. They also answered questions from the audience.