ESU History Professor to Appear on History Channel

Like many college professors who have spent decades educating students and contributing to their field, East Stroudsburg University Professor of History Michael P. Gray, Ph.D., has no shortage of accomplishments.

An expert on Civil War-era prisons, Gray ’90 M’91 has authored and edited books, received numerous grants and professional awards, presented at lectures and has been a go-to source for writers, reporters, documentarians and others seeking to shine light on a piece of the American past.

Soon, Gray will add another accolade to his career with a national television appearance on an episode of History’s “Prison Chronicles,” set to debut on Monday, Sept. 16 at 10:30 p.m.

The series, which premiered in July, gives audiences a glimpse into some of the world’s harshest and most notorious prisons through interviews with historians, journalists, ex-inmates and former corrections officers.

Gray’s episode will focus on Andersonville Prison, a Confederate prison camp in Georgia. Infamous for its brutal conditions, lack of food and overcrowding, approximately 13,000 of the roughly 45,000 Union prisoners held there died – cementing its place in history as the Civil War’s deadliest prison, Gray said.

“It was the absolute worst of the worst,” he said.

For Gray, the episode’s premiere has been a long time coming.

He recorded it in 2022 after being interviewed for another History series, “History’s Greatest Escapes with Morgan Freeman,” which features the Oscar-winning actor exploring notorious real-life prison breaks and their aftermath.

At a recording studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., Gray talked about a famous escape from Libby Prison, another Civil War-era lockup located in what was then the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. He also discussed officers’ accounts of the conditions there and how those conditions compared to other Confederate prisons of the time.

“Libby was an officer-only prison and officers were generally treated better, so the death rate was less than two percent, whereas Andersonville was an enlisted man’s prison, and they were treated really poorly,” Dr. Gray said.

Andersonville’s death rate was about 29 percent, despite it only being open for about 14 months, he added.

After hearing Gray describe the conditions at Andersonville compared to Libby, the producers asked if he would be also interested in taping an episode of a new History series, “Prison Chronicles,” that would focus on Andersonville, he said.

“Everything came really naturally for me about Andersonville because I’ve been on site, I’ve researched it and I teach it in my United States History and in my upper-level classes,” Dr. Gray said.

Gray said the classroom is where his television and mass media appearances make the most impact.

That is especially the case for students pursuing the University’s Public History Certificate or its undergraduate track in Public History. Both are intended for students who, instead of teaching history in the traditional classroom setting, want to work in settings where they interpret it for the public, like museums, national parks or through appearances on documentaries, docudramas and other history-themed media.

Being able to share these experiences with students gives them valuable insight on career pathways and expectations, Gray said.

Gray has made several appearances on national television. In 2017, he was featured on TLC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” The series, now in its 11^th season, pairs celebrities with historians and other experts to trace their family tree. Gray helped actress Jessica Biel discover the fate of an ancestor who tried escaping a Civil War-era prison in Illinois.

Gray also hosted the documentary series “Battlefield 101” on Military.com from 2018-2021, ultimately helping one of his students land an internship at the Easton, Pa. based company that produced it.

“I’m able to go do these things and bring the experiences back to students to help them and to show them what it’s like when history and Hollywood meet,” he said.

“Prison Chronicles – Andersonville” will air on History on Monday, Sept. 16, at 10:30 p.m. and will be available for streaming the following day. Find more information on the series at www.history.com/shows/prison-chronicles.

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