Incarcerated Women : A History of Struggles, Oppression, and Resistance in American Prisons.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: Nineteenth-Century Prisons -- Chapter One: "Secret Horrors": Enslaved Women and Children in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, 1833-1862 -- Chapter Two: "In the Care of the Supposed Powerful State": Women and Children in the Virginia Penitentiary, 1800-1883 -- Chapter Three: Letters from Inside: Prison Writings from Eastern State Penitentiary in the Nineteenth Century -- Part II: The Progressive Era -- Chapter Four: "I thought if I got a chance I would do it": Sexual Negotiation by Black Women Convicts in Texas, 1875-1915 -- Chapter Five: "I Beg for Your Mercy": The Business of Black Women's Bodies in the Carceral State, 1880s-1960s -- III: Twentieth-Century Experiences and Current Issues -- Chapter Six: Discipline, Resistance, and Social Control at the Illinois State Reformatory for Women, 1930-1962 -- Chapter Seven: Making Mothers: Teaching the Virtues of Motherhood at Westfield Reformatory, 1950s-1960s -- Chapter Eight: "It's a Way to Get Out of Prison": Writing and Teaching in Women's Prisons -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Contributors.

This collection examines the history of the experience of female inmates in American prisons from the early nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. The contributors analyze women's efforts to exert agency and control over their bodies and experiences, issues of race and class, and how women's experiences differed from those of male inmates.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.