Black Prisoners and Their World: Alabama, 1865-1900

Mary Ellen Curtin's Black Prisoners and Their World, Alabama, 1865-1900 delivers precisely the history its title promises. And more: If you fear a too-narrow focus, you needn't be overly concerned. Yes, the book in the main concentrates on post-emancipation, pre-fin-de-siècle Alabama, but it also gives the reader a substantial overview of the period 1901-1928 (1928 being the year Alabama finally took its state and county prisoners out of the coal mines/death camps). If you are at all interested in the sacrifices (in every sense of the word) of black Americans after the Civil War--and especially those of black American prisoners--I unreservedly recommend this book to you. It's everything a work of history should be: Comprehensive within its stated purview; highly erudite; deeply insightful; scrupulously fair; mindful of the limits of the available evidence; and perhaps most important, well written and readily digested. For those who, like me, come to it because they read Douglas Blackmon's Slavery by Another Name--which is essential reading in its own right--it's eye-opening as well. (I should not fail to note also that the epilogue, which discusses the state of the prison industrial complex as of 2000, is hugely informative--not to mention, damningly critical.)