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Crucibles of Discontent: Penal Pract...

Henderson, Taja-Nia Y.

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Crucibles of Discontent: Penal Practice in the Shadow of Slavery, Virginia, 1796-1865.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Crucibles of Discontent: Penal Practice in the Shadow of Slavery, Virginia, 1796-1865./
Author:	Henderson, Taja-Nia Y.
Published:	Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, : 2013,
Description:	325 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 75-03, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International75-03A.
Subject:	African American Studies. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3591231
ISBN:	9781303317798

Crucibles of Discontent: Penal Practice in the Shadow of Slavery, Virginia, 1796-1865.
Henderson, Taja-Nia Y.

Crucibles of Discontent: Penal Practice in the Shadow of Slavery, Virginia, 1796-1865. - Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2013 - 325 p.

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 75-03, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, 2013.

This item is not available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.

This dissertation examines the role of legal institutions-specifically local jails and state prisons-and law functionaries-specifically sheriffs, constables, jailors, and prison administrators--in the service of slavery in the early national and antebellum American South. I ask how, in Virginia, elite whites deployed "law" to suit their needs as slaveholders and also how black Virginians and non-slaveholding whites experienced the deployment of law to protect slavery and slave property. By illuminating functions and functionaries of law in a slave society, I show that security of slave property in penal facilities was a central function of the early national and antebellum Virginian government. Confinement fostered statemaking, as lawmakers erected agencies, institutions, and compensation schemes intended to make whites (both slaveholding and non-slaveholding) complicit in the maintenance of black people in slavery. Penal law reform and the founding of the state's first penitentiary also served slavery. From its inception, the penitentiary was designed to exploit the labor of its unpaid, bound residents; effectively, the institution was intended to reduce free people to a form of state slavery. In addition, the prison was employed in the safekeeping of convicted slaves condemned for sale and transportation outside the bounds of the commonwealth. From 1800 to 1865, nearly 1,000 enslaved men and women were condemned for sale and transportation; hundreds of these persons were secured in the Richmond penitentiary, alongside free prisoners, prior to their transfer. Elite Virginians' conceptualizations of the purposes of penal institutions, however, did not always fit the reality of administering and managing those institutions. The plans of administrators and lawmakers were frequently interrupted by the actions of incarcerated people, both slave and free. Penal practice in Virginia was improvised, as elites responded to the exigencies of prisoner resistance, slave unrest, and, eventually, war. Ultimately, I argue that these conflicts not only shaped penal practice in the antebellum period, but also that penal practice was constitutive of the administration of the law of slavery in the commonwealth. This history enhances our understanding of the multivalent functions of law and legal institutions. It challenges our assumption that law enforcement is a natural antidote to criminality. It also demonstrates that, in early national and antebellum Virginia, lawmaking frequently happened outside the halls of the legislature by people vested with public authority. Their institutions, work, and the interests they served, lie at the center of this project.

ISBN: 9781303317798Subjects--Topical Terms:

1669123
African American Studies.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Jails

Crucibles of Discontent: Penal Practice in the Shadow of Slavery, Virginia, 1796-1865.
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245 1 0 $a Crucibles of Discontent: Penal Practice in the Shadow of Slavery, Virginia, 1796-1865.
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300 $a 325 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 75-03, Section: A.
500 $a Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
500 $a Advisor: Hodes, Martha.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, 2013.
506 $a This item is not available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
506 $a This item must not be added to any third party search indexes.
506 $a This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
520 $a This dissertation examines the role of legal institutions-specifically local jails and state prisons-and law functionaries-specifically sheriffs, constables, jailors, and prison administrators--in the service of slavery in the early national and antebellum American South. I ask how, in Virginia, elite whites deployed "law" to suit their needs as slaveholders and also how black Virginians and non-slaveholding whites experienced the deployment of law to protect slavery and slave property. By illuminating functions and functionaries of law in a slave society, I show that security of slave property in penal facilities was a central function of the early national and antebellum Virginian government. Confinement fostered statemaking, as lawmakers erected agencies, institutions, and compensation schemes intended to make whites (both slaveholding and non-slaveholding) complicit in the maintenance of black people in slavery. Penal law reform and the founding of the state's first penitentiary also served slavery. From its inception, the penitentiary was designed to exploit the labor of its unpaid, bound residents; effectively, the institution was intended to reduce free people to a form of state slavery. In addition, the prison was employed in the safekeeping of convicted slaves condemned for sale and transportation outside the bounds of the commonwealth. From 1800 to 1865, nearly 1,000 enslaved men and women were condemned for sale and transportation; hundreds of these persons were secured in the Richmond penitentiary, alongside free prisoners, prior to their transfer. Elite Virginians' conceptualizations of the purposes of penal institutions, however, did not always fit the reality of administering and managing those institutions. The plans of administrators and lawmakers were frequently interrupted by the actions of incarcerated people, both slave and free. Penal practice in Virginia was improvised, as elites responded to the exigencies of prisoner resistance, slave unrest, and, eventually, war. Ultimately, I argue that these conflicts not only shaped penal practice in the antebellum period, but also that penal practice was constitutive of the administration of the law of slavery in the commonwealth. This history enhances our understanding of the multivalent functions of law and legal institutions. It challenges our assumption that law enforcement is a natural antidote to criminality. It also demonstrates that, in early national and antebellum Virginia, lawmaking frequently happened outside the halls of the legislature by people vested with public authority. Their institutions, work, and the interests they served, lie at the center of this project.
590 $a School code: 0146.
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650 4 $a American history. $3 2122692
650 4 $a Law. $3 600858
650 4 $a Criminology. $3 533274
653 $a Jails
653 $a Law
653 $a Penitentiaries
653 $a Prisons
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653 $a Slavery
653 $a Virginia
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