loppear reviewed Chained in Silence by Talitha L. LeFlouria
Review of 'Chained in Silence' on Goodreads
3 stars
Tough read as this is mostly stringing together accounts of brutality to women convicts in Georgia as indentured labor switches post-civil-war from slavery to the 13th-amendment-allowed "slavery in case of crime". Adds some to the idea that Georgia was able to rapidly industrialize and modernize through leased convicts and chain gangs. The author gives women agency by showing that Georgia's gender-mixed approach to these institutions gave women convicts opportunity to perform skilled labor (blacksmithing, brickmaking) that was otherwise still men's domain, and by reading accounts of whipping etc as acts of resistance.