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Author ORCID Identifier
N/A
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
History
Year Degree Awarded
2017
Month Degree Awarded
May
First Advisor
Barbara Krauthamer
Second Advisor
Laura Lovett
Third Advisor
Rachel Mordecai
Fourth Advisor
Jeanne Theoharis
Subject Categories
Cultural History | United States History
Abstract
“And Liberty For All” is a case study of an African-American rural community in Georgia. It argues that to understand the manners in which Southern rural black communities fought for civil rights in the Black Freedom Struggle, one must take the longue durèe approach to researching and writing their histories. Thus, this dissertation covers the period of slavery until the modern Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s. This case study is representative of other Southern rural communities in that it highlights the nuanced ways in which they survived and persevered while facing racism, racial violence, and disenfranchisement by using grassroots organizing techniques that were specific to the needs of their community. However, it takes an ethno-historical approach in centering the experiences of the local black community who self-identified as Geechee and who trace their ancestry and traditions to enslaved West and Central Africans brought to coastal Georgia in the eighteenth century for their knowledge of rice cultivation.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/10012732.0
Recommended Citation
Jamison, Felicia, "And Liberty For All: Geechee Culture and the Black Freedom Struggle in Liberty County, Georgia, 1752-1946" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations. 1017.
https://doi.org/10.7275/10012732.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1017