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Lightless Mornings: A Fine Legacy, Emily Zeanah

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Lightless Mornings: A Fine Legacy represents a personal interrogation and historical account of my great-great -great grandfather, W.D. McCurdy’s use of forced labor in his coalmines and cotton plantations in the Black Belt region of Alabama during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through personal research including interviews with other descendents of McCurdy, as well as scholarly research about the practice of convict leasing in Alabama, I explore dynamics of inheritance, economics, power, privilege, race, class, geography, history, family, and identity.