Incarcerated Women

Erica Rhodes Hayden is assistant professor of history at Trevecca Nazarene University.Theresa R. Jach is professor of history at Houston Community College.

This collection examines the history of the experience of female inmates in American prisons from the early nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. The contributors analyze women's efforts to exert agency and control over their bodies and experiences, issues of race and class, and how women's experiences differed from those of male inmates.

Introduction, Erica Rhodes Hayden and Theresa R. JachPart I: Nineteenth-Century PrisonsChapter 1: "Secret Horrors": Enslaved Women and Children in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, 1833-1862, Brett Josef DerbesChapter 2: "In the Care of the Supposed Powerful State": Women and Children in the Virginia Penitentiary, 1800-1883, Hilary L. CoulsonChapter 3: "Letters from Inside: Prison Writings from Eastern State Penitentiary in the 19th Century," Erica Rhodes HaydenPart II: The Progressive EraChapter 4: "I thought if I got a chance I would do it": Sexual Negotiation by Black Women Convicts in Texas, 1875-1915, Theresa R. JachChapter 5: "I Beg for Your Mercy": The Business of Black Women's Bodies in the Carceral State, 1880s-1960s, Telisha Dionne BaileyPart III: Twentieth-Century Experiences and Current IssuesChapter 6: Discipline, Resistance, and Social Control at the Illinois State Reformatory for Women, 1930-62, L. Mara DodgeChapter 7: Making Mothers: Teaching the Virtues of Motherhood at Westfield Reformatory, 1950s-1960s, Ilse Denisse CatalanChapter 8: "It's a Way to Get Out of Prison": Writing and Teaching in Women's PrisonsBreea C. Willingham