We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners' Rights in Postwar America

In the early twentieth century, southern prisons were a national scandal, with prisoners toiling in grueling, violent conditions while housed in crude dormitories on what were effectively slave plantations. Texas presented prison design reforms to the public as modern, efficient, and disciplined, but the transition to penitentiary cells only made the endemic violence more secretive, intensifying the labor division that privileged some prisoners with the power to accelerate state-orchestrated brutality and the internal sex trade. Reformers' efforts had only made things worse, and it was up to the prisoners to fight for change. This book weaves together untold but devastatingly important truths from the histories of labor, civil rights, and politics in the United States as it narrates the transition from prison plantations of the past to the mass incarceration of today.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 544 pages
Publication date: 28 February 2022
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

In the early 20th century, the inhumane conditions of southern prisons became a national scandal. Prisoners toiled under grueling and violent conditions, often housed in crude dormitories on what amounted to slave plantations. This system persisted until the 1940s, when, led by Texas, southern states adopted northern prison design reforms. Texas presented these reforms as modern, efficient, and disciplined. However, the transition to penitentiary cells only intensified the endemic violence within prisons, further dividing inmates into labor factions that privileged certain individuals with the power to orchestrate state-sanctioned brutality and facilitate the internal sex trade.

Reformers' efforts to improve conditions had only worsened the situation. It was now up to the prisoners themselves to fight for change. Drawing from three decades of legal documents compiled by prisoners, Robert T. Chase narrates the struggle to transform prisons from within. Prisoners forged an alliance with the NAACP to challenge the constitutionality of Texas prisons. Behind bars, a coalition of Chicano Movement and Black Power organizations publicized their deplorable conditions as slaves of the state and initiated a prison-made civil rights revolution and labor protest movement. These insurgents achieved significant legal victories that declared conditions in many southern prisons to be cruel and unusual. However, their movement was overwhelmed by the increasing militarization of the prison system and the empowerment of white supremacist gangs that declared war on prison organizers.

Told from the vantage point of the prisoners themselves, this book weaves together untold but devastatingly important truths from the histories of labor, civil rights, and politics in the United States. It narrates the transition from the prison plantations of the past, shedding light on the ongoing struggle for justice and equality in the criminal justice system.

Weight: 854g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781469669311