Of Slaves, Sharecroppers, and Convicts: Unsettling Clemson University’s History

Guest Speaker: Rhondda Thomas, Associate Professor
Department of English, Clemson University

This talk examines the unsettling of Clemson University’s sanitized approach to history through a scholar-activist’s recovery of the stories of enslaved and sharecropping African Americans who labored on the land—John C. Calhoun’s Fort Hill Plantation—upon which the institution was built by a predominately African American convict labor crew; Clemson student activists’ demands to the administration for greater transparency and a more diverse and inclusive community; and the Clemson Trustees’ consciousness awakening experience regarding Clemson history during debates that led to the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds following the Charleston 9 massacre.

Co-hosted by the Local Americanists Group and the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies