Convict women and their quest for humanity: Examining patterns of race, class, and gender in Georgia's convict lease and chain gang systems, 1865--1917

Convict Women and Their Quest for Humanity examines the role of black female prisoners in Georgia's convict lease and chain gang systems between 1865 and 1917. This evaluation begins with an exploration of African American women's lives and labor in slavery and freedom, and further traces the contribution black female prisoners made toward the building of Georgia's industrial economy following the American Civil War. Georgia's post-war economy was heavily driven by convict laborers---male and female---who worked, by force, in its wide range of industries and initiated its course toward modernization and New South prosperity.;By examining black women's labor patterns in the South before and after the Civil War, one can more clearly understand the involvement of black women prisoners in Georgia's industrial system. The sexual division of labor in Georgia's convict camps was as indiscriminate as it had been under slavery. Black female convicts in Georgia were routinely consigned to perform hard manual labor tasks, which set them apart from women prisoners in other southern states who were largely relied upon for domestic service.;While most studies of black women's work in the post-emancipation South tend to relegate their labor duties to two distinct categories---agricultural and domestic---this study seeks to deepen the discourse by inserting the role women prisoners played by assisting in the construction of Georgia's industrial economy. Convict Women adds to the existing scholarly dialogue by emphasizing the contributions of an overlooked population of Georgia's female industrial class---convict women, but by also inspecting the inner lives of black women prisoners. This study will reconstruct the experiences of African American women who labored in Georgia's convict camps while resisting sexual exploitation and physical violence, meanwhile taking strident steps to assert their humanity.