Diverse Experience of the Enslaved

The experiences of enslaved people varied greatly based on a variety of factors, including time, location, crop, labor performed, size of slaveholding and gender. Yet, most students leave school thinking enslaved people lived like the biased representation in Gone With the Wind. Deirdre Cooper Owens, Ph.D., discusses how the lived experience of slavery varied and evolved. Join host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., and Learning for Justice, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). (This episode originally aired in Mar. 2018.)

Visit the new resource page for this episode (2025), which includes essential ideas and teaching recommendations from the conversation, updated resources, and a complete transcript.

And educators! Get a professional development certificate for listening to this episode—issued by Learning for Justice. Listen for the special code word, then visit learningforjustice.org/podcastpd.