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Runaway Slaves, Militant Abolitionists, and the Critique of American Prisons, 1830–60

Publication ,  Journal Article
Olsavsky, J
Published in: History Workshop Journal
July 27, 2021

This essay reveals the ways that runaways and abolitionists, through their critiques of American prisons in the decades prior to the American Civil War, collectively originated the ideas and practices of prison abolition. It began with fugitive slaves who named slavery the ‘prison house’. Runaways, and the most radical amongst abolitionists, many of whom served time for their activism, used fugitives’ carceral language to grasp the place of prisons within the greater ‘prison house’ of American slavery. They actively assisted others to escape this ‘prison house’. They engaged in projects of prison reform and abolition of capital punishment. They freed incarcerated runaways and abolitionists from jails, and resisted racist policing. In the process, these radicals became disenchanted with the modernizing reform project known as the ‘penitentiary’, in some cases calling for the abolition of prisons and police, alongside the abolition of slavery. In short, because the plantation and the penitentiary merged after the Civil War, abolitionist critiques of both provided the little-studied roots of contemporary prison-abolitionist thought.

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Published In

History Workshop Journal

DOI

EISSN

1477-4569

ISSN

1363-3554

Publication Date

July 27, 2021

Volume

91

Issue

1

Start / End Page

91 / 112

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Related Subject Headings

  • 2103 Historical Studies
 

Citation

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Olsavsky, J. (2021). Runaway Slaves, Militant Abolitionists, and the Critique of American Prisons, 1830–60. History Workshop Journal, 91(1), 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbaa033
Olsavsky, Jesse. “Runaway Slaves, Militant Abolitionists, and the Critique of American Prisons, 1830–60.” History Workshop Journal 91, no. 1 (July 27, 2021): 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbaa033.
Olsavsky J. Runaway Slaves, Militant Abolitionists, and the Critique of American Prisons, 1830–60. History Workshop Journal. 2021 Jul 27;91(1):91–112.
Olsavsky, Jesse. “Runaway Slaves, Militant Abolitionists, and the Critique of American Prisons, 1830–60.” History Workshop Journal, vol. 91, no. 1, Oxford University Press (OUP), July 2021, pp. 91–112. Crossref, doi:10.1093/hwj/dbaa033.
Olsavsky J. Runaway Slaves, Militant Abolitionists, and the Critique of American Prisons, 1830–60. History Workshop Journal. Oxford University Press (OUP); 2021 Jul 27;91(1):91–112.
Journal cover image

Published In

History Workshop Journal

DOI

EISSN

1477-4569

ISSN

1363-3554

Publication Date

July 27, 2021

Volume

91

Issue

1

Start / End Page

91 / 112

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Related Subject Headings

  • 2103 Historical Studies