Georgia
Prison
Project
English 1101, Fall 2020
University of North Georgia
During the Fall semester of 2020, Dr. Valerie Surrett's three sections of Freshman Composition (English 1101) read Bryan Stevenson's book, Just Mercy. After reading the book, the three classes collaborated to create the Georgia Prison Project, a timeline of Georgia's incarceration practices from the antebellum period through the 21st century. Each student was responsible for researching one topic on the timeline and designing a one-page PDF overview.
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The GPP timeline also contributes to the UNG English Department’s semester-long study and celebration of Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved. Paul D, one of the novel’s central characters, suffers from traumas he experienced while incarcerated in antebellum GA. Paul D, who was enslaved in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, is sentenced to a Georgia chain gang after he attempts to kill his new owner. He is forced to work on the chain gang for 86 days before escaping, suffering physical, sexual, and mental abuse at the hands of the white guards.
1735
Alice Riley [1]
1868
First Convict Leasing Contract [1]
Post-Civil War
Black Codes & Vagrancy Laws [1] [2]
1901-1969
Peonage in the South [1] [2]
1868-1908
Convict Leasing Contracts [1] [2]
1868-1908
Convict Leasing Conditions [1] [2] [3]
1881 & 1908
Convict Leasing Activism & Reform [1] [2]
1908-1911
Expansion of Chain Gang System [1]
1903-1960s
Conditions on Chain Gangs [1] [2]
1932
Burns, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! [1]
1932
I Am a Fugitive film adaptation [1]
Mid-1940s
Gov. Ellis Arnall Reforms [1]
1945
Execution of Lena Baker [1]
21st Century
Prison Labor & Compensation [1]
Current Era
Private Prisons in GA [1]
2019
Reforms to Solitary Confinement [1] [2]
Current Era
Current Costs of Incarceration [1]
2020