Worse Than SlaveryIn this sensitively told tale of suffering, brutality, and inhumanity, Worse Than Slavery is an epic history of race and punishment in the deepest South from emancipation to the Civil Rights Era—and beyond. Immortalized in blues songs and movies like Cool Hand Luke and The Defiant Ones, Mississippi’s infamous Parchman State Penitentiary was, in the pre-civil rights south, synonymous with cruelty. Now, noted historian David Oshinsky gives us the true story of the notorious prison, drawing on police records, prison documents, folklore, blues songs, and oral history, from the days of cotton-field chain gangs to the 1960s, when Parchman was used to break the wills of civil rights workers who journeyed south on Freedom Rides. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
After Slavery Before Parchman | 9 |
Emancipation | 11 |
Copyright | |
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Alabama Alan Lomax American Siberia arrested attorney Bennett Black Annie brutal camp Charlie Bennett coal Color Line Conner convict leasing cotton court crime criminal death described Emancipation escape ex-slaves Executioner's Song executions Farm with Slaves federal field freedom Georgia Governor guards hundred Ibid inmates Jackson Clarion-Ledger jail James judge jury Keady killed Kinnie labor legislature lived Lomax lynching MDAH Missis Mississippi Plan Mississippi State Penitentiary murder Natchez Negro Negro in Mississippi newspaper nigger noted Parchman Farm Pardon File penal Penitentiary percent plantation planter political population profits punishment race racial railroad Randolph rape recalled Reconstruction reform reported sentenced sergeant serving sheriff shoot shot sippi Slavery South Southern Stagolee stealing Sunflower County tenant Tennessee tion told took town trial trusties trusty-shooters Vardaman Vicksburg victims violence Wharton whipped White Chief white woman William William Alexander Percy women workers wrote Yazoo Delta York