Dr. Kaisha Esty, '“Live as Becomes a Free Christian Woman”: Freedwomen and State-Sanctioned Reform in the Era of Emancipation'

About this episode

Dr. Kaisha Esty discusses her research on the lives of African American women during the transition from slavery to emancipation.

Please note that this episode contains discussion of sexual violence. This week, PhD candidates Sam Lanevi and Megan Renoir sit down with Dr. Kaisha Esty to discuss her current research project. Dr. Esty is Assistant Professor of History, African American Studies, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She’s on sabbatical this year as an AAUW postdoctoral fellow and resident fellow at the Rothermere American Institute. Her work explores the lives of African American women in the nineteenth century, during the transition from slavery to emancipation. She focuses on the strategies and values that shaped their intimate lives and sense of self, situating these within the broader context of U.S. nation building and westward expansion. The article Kaisha refers to is linked here: Kaisha Esty, ““I Told Him to Let Me Alone, That He Hurt Me”: Black Women and Girls and the Battle over Labor and Sexual Consent in Union-Occupied Territory,” Labor (2022) 19 (1): 32–51. https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-9475702 Co-hosts: Megan Renoir (PhD Candidate) researches the history of US land institutions, 19th and 20th century federal Indian policy, and…

People in this episode

Hosts: Megan Renoir, Sam Lanevi

Guest: Dr. Kaisha Esty

Topics covered

• Freedwomen
• Emancipation
• African American women
• Nineteenth century history
• Intimate lives
• U.S. nation building
• Westward expansion

Keywords

• freedwomen
• emancipation
• African American history
• nineteenth century
• sexual violence
• intimate lives
• U.S. history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wesleyan University, Rothermere American Institute, Labor

Books & works: “I Told Him to Let Me Alone, That He Hurt Me”: Black Women and Girls and the Battle over Labor and Sexual Consent in Union-Occupied Territory

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