One Hundred Fifty Years A Slave

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

Racial disparity has been pervasive in the American penal society since the inception of the criminal justice system. This paper’s focus is an analysis of slave narratives and the forms of justice that American law has allowed, originating with the treatment of slaves. As slave narratives are currently being republished and garnering media attention, how were they foreshadowing the persistent racial subjugation that continues to exist in the modern legal system? With the recent reintroduction of chain gangs as a method of punishment, is the American criminal justice system returning to a type of reimagined slavery? Changing the future can only be done if we learn from the past.

Author

• Adrienne C Kelish, Southwestern Law School