Product Review

Several African-American men are telling their stories of abuse they say they suffered at the infamous state-run Dozier Reform School in the Panhandle town of Marianna as boys." They said they were worked like slaves at the school. They worked on farms, raised livestock, planted and chopped sugarcane, logging and cutting timber, and other hard work. Reports of children being brutally whipped and chained to the walls in irons as well as peonage cases was reported." The Florida School for Boys, also known as Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys (AGDS), was a reform school operated from January 1, 1900 to June 30, 2011. For a time, it was the largest juvenile reform institution in the United States. Throughout its 111-year history, the school gained a reputation for abuse, beatings, rapes, torture, and murders. For ten years, reowned genealogist and peonage researcher Antoinette Harrell has unearthed thousands of state and federal documents relating to peonage. She started researching the peonage files and found thousands of records such as newspaper articles, Federal Bureau of Investigation Reports, NAACP Reports, letter from private citizens, and letters to and from elected officials.