Jessica Wicks-Allen—Child Apprenticeship and Black Maternal Authority following the Civil War

In this episode, Ph.D. Candidate Kasha Appleton (Indiana University) talks with history professor Dr. Jessica Wicks-Allen (Arizona State University) about Wicks-Allen’s Journal of American History article, “Child Apprenticeship and Black Maternal Authority following the Civil War.” Their conversation features an important discussion of Black women’s engagement with the U.S. child apprenticeship system post-emancipation. Specifically, Wicks-Allen and Appleton delve into how Black women leveraged power and fundamentally shaped the contract process by way of their intimate knowledge of the apprenticeship system. Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaaf094 X: @thejamhist | Facebook: The Journal of American History For more information on OAH 2026, visit: https://www.oah.org/conferences/oah2026/