Twice The Work of Free Labor (Haymarket) [Paperback]

Alex Lichtenstein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1859840868 | ISBN-13: 978-1859840863 | Publication Date: January 17, 1996

For the first time in a generation shain gangs have reappeared on the raods of the American South. Associated in the past with racial terrorism, this cruel and unusual punishment should invoke strong memories. But, in the rush to embrace ever-harsher sanctions, the American public has ignored the troubling history of Southern punishment. Twice the Work of Free Labor is the first book-length study of the history of the Southern convict-lease system and its successor, the chain gang. For nearly a century after the abolition of slavery, convicts labored in the South's mines, railroad camps, brickyards, turpentine farms and then road gangs, under abject conditions. The vast majority of these prisoners were African Americans. In this timely book, Alex Lichtenstein suggests that, after emancipation, forced black labor was exploited not by those who yearned for the social order of the slave South, but by the region's most ardent advocates of progress. The convict-lease and chain gang allowed a New South to rise while preserving white supremacy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Powerful, painstakingly researched, gracefully written, Twice the Work of Free Labor is a must read for anyone seeking an historical perspective on the current expansion of the US prison industry and the state's reliance on incarceration to deal with the poor." - Robin D. G. Kelley

About the Author

Alex Lichtenstein is Assisstant Professor of History at Florida International University in Miami. His articles have appeared in Radical History Review, Journal of Southern History and Labor History.

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: Verso (January 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859840868
• ISBN-13: 978-1859840863
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,322,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, July 27, 2010

By 

Maxtone Witherball - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twice The Work of Free Labor (Haymarket) (Paperback)

The first chapter is a rather inconsequential, unnecessary, and tedious discussion about the continuity vel non of the Old and New Souths. Mercifully, it is quite short.

The rest of the book, however, offers one of the most erudite, engaging, and enlightening histories of convict leasing and the chain gang I've read.

The worst things I can say about it is that its title fails to alert the reader to the fact the it focuses almost exclusively on prisoner exploitation in Georgia, and that it deliberately slights the "story from 'below,'" leaving out for the most part the "tales of racial brutality and torture" one might expect from such a book.

Nevertheless, it's an excellent piece of work, and a great companion to Matthew Mancini's One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South, 1866-1928.