CRM 331: Corrections
Prison
History
Listed below is the internet assignment at the Library
of Congress. Further down I have put up some links for additional information on
prison history. If you liked the tape of Race Hoss, there's more information
about the book and how to get a copy of the tape. If you liked the prison work
songs, check out more in the Library of Congress (limit the search to music
recordings) or the links to several CDs you can buy.
Internet
Assignment: Go to the Library
of Congress website and click on the American Memory Project (make sure
to click on the larger American memory Project rather than What Happened Today
in History). Click on the option to search and type in a word or words related
to this class – prison, jail, punishment, etc. (If you want to try ‘chain
gang’ or ‘death penalty’, change the search option to ‘search as
phrase’.)
Not all entries for the search will be relevant, but find
several pictures, songs, movies, or documents. In your 2 page paper: (1) clearly
identify what items you examined (title, artist or photographer, reference
number etc) (2) why this material interested you and (3) how it related to
material in Welch that you have read so far. Please note that points will be
deducted for not citing the material you examined and point (3) is an extremely
important aspect of this paper, so make sure you have done the reading for this
class before writing the paper.
Race Hoss:
The man interviewed on the tape we heard is Albert Race Sample, whose book is
called Race Hoss. Amazon.com
has a great description of the book but says it is out of print. However, BestBookBuys.com
says they can get a copy. (The links in the last sentences take you to the pages
with the Race Hoss book on them - not to the 'front door' of the book
stores.) To get your own
copy of the Race Hoss interview, call 202/885-1200 and tell them that you
want the show where Diane Rehm interviewed
Race Hoss (it's $10 including postage & handling).
If the rise of the plantation is of interest, I would highly
recommend David Oshinsky's book, 'Worse Than
Slavery' : Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow
Justice. (I use it in the graduate Sociology of Crime and Its Correction
class and the students all really enjoy it.)
Prison History links:
To follow up on other aspects of prison history, check out this Prison
History and Reform Page. Eastern
State Penitentiary (remember, silent system) has a homepage of its own with
a brief timeline and a virtual reality tour. The Yahoo
Crime section has a category on prison and there's a list of history
links within that.
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