The penitentiary mirrored chattel slavery in its structure and daily regime.

Evidence

In many ways, the penitentiary was a vast improvement over the many forms of capital and corporal punishment inherited from the English. However, the contention that prisoners would refashion themselves if only given the opportunity to reflect and labor in solitude and silence disregarded the impact of authoritarian regimes of living and work. Indeed, there were significant similarities between slavery and the penitentiary prison. Historian Adam Jay Hirsch has pointed out: One may perceive in the penitentiary many reflections of chattel slavery as it was practiced in the South. Both institutions subordinated their subjects to the will of others. Like Southern slaves, prison inmates followed a daily routine specified by their superiors. Both institutions reduced their subjects to dependence on others for the supply of basic human services such as food and shelter. Both isolated their subjects from the general population by confining them to a fixed habitat. And both frequently coerced their subjects to work, often for longer hours and for less compensation than free laborers. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 65

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Black Marxism’s argument about racialized labor control and connects to the reading purpose on slavery-prison links. — connects to: Slavery’s abolition parallels the conceivable abolition of prisons; Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253

Broader Connections

• Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system #expands (0.60) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253
• Slavery’s abolition parallels the conceivable abolition of prisons #expands (0.50)