Verso, 1996; University of South Carolina Press, 1996

One of the most enduring images of the post-Civil War South is the African American prisoner, bound in chains, working on the roads or at some other equally oppressive task. Through the print media, bad Hollywood films, and, more recently, the actions of the state of Alabama, southerners’ treatment of criminals has become a defining characteristic of the region. Ask a non-southerner to give you a list of distinctly southern traits and the chain gang is likely to show up, though few people ever get beyond popular images of an “American Siberia.”