layered Histories: State by state Incarceration and colonization

To better understand the ongoing problems with incarceration, we need to understand the layered histories of carceral institutions and the land they occupy in the U.S. The United States severely lacks a memory culture. At a time when conservative legislators in the Southeast attempt to ban accurate records of history from classrooms, it’s vital to highlight the history of the region when talking about prison and building a more equitable society.

This archival portion of If the Creek Don’t Rise mostly portrays the years between the colonization of the U.S. and the Civil War. Prisons were put in place to upkeep an economy based on enslaved people. The convict leasing movement that started prisons, and led to the commodification of prisons as they are today, had its beginnings in Southern states. Included in the archive is some current information surrounding the prisons and celebrates activists and innovations from the history of that state.

Content Warning: The history of the lands portion of the archives mention sensitive issues like genocide, massacre, and violence incited by racism and classism.