Date of Award
1-1-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in History
First Advisor
Ted M. Ownby
Second Advisor
April Holm
Third Advisor
Paul J. Polgar
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
On April 15, 1907, twelve Black and white convicts escaped from the Durham Mines prison camp located on Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Over the next month, newspapers throughout Georgia and in neighboring states reported the escape and discussed the recapture events. Within five days of the prison break, the local white community recaptured all nine Black convicts. None of the white convicts were caught. As this thesis investigates the lives, crimes, and recapture of all twelve prisoners, it connects the convict lease prison system with the newspaper media to understand the impact of white supremacy ideology and the repressive systems that constrained the lives of Black Americans at the height of Jim Crow segregation in the South.
Recommended Citation
Gross, Avery Elise, ""Dug Way to Liberty": Newspapers, Prison, and Jim Crow in Georgia in The Early 1900s" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2509.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2509