The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930

In parts of the South, enslaved and free people were jailed at astronomical rates, and slaveholders were deeply reliant on coercive state action to maintain control and maximize profit. New Orleans had the highest incarceration rate in the US, and some slave prisons remained in use well after Emancipation. Bardes reinterprets relations between slavery and prison development in American history, highlighting the moral crises of racialized policing and mass incarceration.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 432 pages
Publication date: 02 April 2024
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

Americans frequently assume that slave societies had little use for prisons and police because slaveholders only ever inflicted violence directly or through overseers. However, John Bardes' groundbreaking research challenges this notion by uncovering a wealth of previously overlooked arrest and prison records. In parts of the South, enslaved and free people were jailed at astronomical rates, demonstrating the deep reliance of slaveholders on coercive state action. Authorities constructed massive slave prisons and devised specialized slave penal systems to maintain control and maximize profit.

In New Orleans, for most of the past half-century, the city with the highest incarceration rate in the United States, enslaved people were incarcerated at higher rates during the antebellum era than Black residents today. Moreover, some slave prisons remained in use well after Emancipation, hiding the hidden origins of state violence under Jim Crow.

Bardes' work is a powerful reinterpretation of relations between slavery and prison development in American history. It sheds light on the enduring legacy of racialized policing and mass incarceration, which are among the gravest moral crises of our time. However, it also reminds us that these crises are not new, as slavery, the prison, and race have been deeply interwoven into the history of American governance.

This research underscores the importance of confronting our past and addressing the systemic inequalities that continue to shape our society. It calls for a deeper understanding of the historical roots of these problems and a commitment to building a more just and equitable future. Only by acknowledging and confronting our history can we hope to break the cycle of violence and oppression that has plagued our nation for so long.

Weight: 670g
Dimension: 156 x 235 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781469678184