The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; passed in 1865; has long been viewed as a definitive break with the nation’s past by abolishing slavery and ushering in an inexorable march toward black freedom. Slaves of the State presents a stunning counterhistory to this linear narrative of racial; social; and legal progress in America.Dennis Childs argues that the incarceration of black people and other historically repressed groups in chain gangs; peon camps; prison plantations; and penitentiaries represents a ghostly perpetuation of chattel slavery. He exposes how the Thirteenth Amendment’s exception clause—allowing for enslavement as “punishment for a crimeâ€â€”has inaugurated forms of racial capitalist misogynist incarceration that serve as haunting returns of conditions Africans endured in the barracoons and slave ship holds of the Middle Passage; on plantations; and in chattel slavery.Childs seeks out the historically muted voices of those entombed within terrorizing spaces such as the chain gang rolling cage and the modern solitary confinement cell; engaging the writings of Toni Morrison and Chester Himes as well as a broad range of archival materials; including landmark court cases; prison songs; and testimonies; reaching back to the birth of modern slave plantations such as Louisiana’s “Angola†penitentiary.Slaves of the State paves the way for a new understanding of chattel slavery as a continuing social reality of U.S. empire—one resting at the very foundation of today’s prison industrial complex that now holds more than 2.3 million people within the country’s jails; prisons; and immigrant detention centers.
#2378057 in Books Checkmark Books 2006-11-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 10.94 x 1.03 x 8.40l; 2.85 #File Name: 0816068399554 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A book to be readBy William C. MiloNobody should teach history that hasn't read this book. A more complete coverage of a subject would not be possible. It brings the subject into the realm of reality. It give you insight into the lives of all people in the time of slavery.2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Covers colonial times to the Civil WarBy Midwest Book ReviewDorothy and Carl Schneider's Slavery In America (0816038635;...) covers colonial times to the Civil War; providing a chronology of events and eyewitness insights along with capsule biographies of over a hundred key figures. Highly recommended.0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Slavery in AmericaBy LMMthis was a nice book to have and it helped assist me on my research.
