Worse than slavery : Parchman Farm and the ordeal of Jim Crow justice / David M. Oshinsky.
1996
HV9475.M72 M576 1996 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
Formats
| Format | |
|---|---|
| BibTeX | |
| MARCXML | |
| TextMARC | |
| MARC | |
| DublinCore | |
| EndNote | |
| NLM | |
| RefWorks | |
| RIS |
Items
Details
Title
Worse than slavery : Parchman Farm and the ordeal of Jim Crow justice / David M. Oshinsky.
Author
ISBN
9780684830957 (pbk)
0684830957 (pbk)
9780684822983
0684822989
0684830957 (pbk)
9780684822983
0684822989
Published
New York : Free Press, [1996]
Copyright
©1996
Language
English
Description
xiv, 306 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Call Number
HV9475.M72 M576 1996
Dewey Decimal Classification
365/.9762
Summary
"Worse Than Slavery" is an epic history of race and punishment in the deepest South from emancipation to the civil rights era - and beyond. Southern prisons have been immortalized in convict work songs, in the blues, and in movies such as Cool Hand Luke and The Defiant Ones. Mississippi's Parchman Penitentiary was the grandfather of them all, an immense, isolated plantation with shotguns, whips, and bloodhounds, where inmates worked the cotton fields in striped clothing from dawn to dusk. William Faulkner described Parchman as "destination doom." Its convicts included bluesmen like "Son" House and "Bukka" White, who featured the prison in the legendary "Midnight Special" and "Parchman Farm Blues.".
Noted historian David M. Oshinsky draws on prison records, pardon files, folklore, oral history, and the blues to offer an unforgettable portrait of Parchman and Jim Crow justice - from the horrors of convict leasing in the late nineteenth century to the struggle for black equality in the 1960s, when Parchman was used to break the spirit of civil rights workers who journeyed south on the Freedom Rides. In Mississippi, the criminal justice system often proved that there could be something worse than slavery. The "old" Parchman is gone, a casualty of federal court orders in the 1970s. What it tells us about our past is well worth remembering in a nation deeply divided by race.
Noted historian David M. Oshinsky draws on prison records, pardon files, folklore, oral history, and the blues to offer an unforgettable portrait of Parchman and Jim Crow justice - from the horrors of convict leasing in the late nineteenth century to the struggle for black equality in the 1960s, when Parchman was used to break the spirit of civil rights workers who journeyed south on the Freedom Rides. In Mississippi, the criminal justice system often proved that there could be something worse than slavery. The "old" Parchman is gone, a casualty of federal court orders in the 1970s. What it tells us about our past is well worth remembering in a nation deeply divided by race.
Note
Noted historian David M. Oshinsky draws on prison records, pardon files, folklore, oral history, and the blues to offer an unforgettable portrait of Parchman and Jim Crow justice - from the horrors of convict leasing in the late nineteenth century to the struggle for black equality in the 1960s, when Parchman was used to break the spirit of civil rights workers who journeyed south on the Freedom Rides. In Mississippi, the criminal justice system often proved that there could be something worse than slavery. The "old" Parchman is gone, a casualty of federal court orders in the 1970s. What it tells us about our past is well worth remembering in a nation deeply divided by race.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-298) and index.
Record Appears in
Table of Contents
After slavery, before Parchman. Emancipation
The Mississippi plan
American Siberia
The white chief
The Parchman era. The birth and birthplace
Parchman Farm
The other Parchman : white men, black women
Going home
Executioner's song
A farm with slaves.
The Mississippi plan
American Siberia
The white chief
The Parchman era. The birth and birthplace
Parchman Farm
The other Parchman : white men, black women
Going home
Executioner's song
A farm with slaves.