What We Do

Our Mission:

To restore recognition and dignity to the people affected by the convict lease system in Tennessee, through a holistic, fact-based recounting of their experiences of incarceration.

The Tennessee Convict Lease Project and the Lone Rock Stockade Archaeological Project are both directed by Camille Westmont, Ph.D., RPA

What We’ve Achieved

  • Community engagement through organized Transcribe-a-thons, public tours, and public archaeology events

  • Undergraduate education opportunities through guest lectures, publications, and class activities

  • Engagement with descendants and African American stakeholder groups

  • Research training through archaeological skill building and collections-based research

  • Recorded and publicly available lectures about the history of the stockade

Future Goals

  • Additional excavations at the Lone Rock Stockade, prioritizing a shovel test survey of the entire stockade site

  • Entering artifacts into the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery to increase dissemination of data

  • Greater co-creative and collaboration with descendant community

  • Identification of descendants

  • Increased capacity building within the local stakeholder community