INEQUALITY AND THE PUNISHMENT OF MINOR OFFENDERS IN THE EARLY-20TH-CENTURY

This article extends recent theorizing on 19th- and early 20th-century social control to the punishment of minor offenders in the American S outh. Despite surface differences in state control and in court contex ts, the punishment of convicted misdemeanants strikingly resembled its more serious counterpart. The racial composition of both chain-gang a nd penitentiary populations was similar, as were trends in the rate at which the public and private sector forcefully expropriated the labor of black and white males. Depressed economic conditions adversely aff ected all punishment rates, regardless of race. Although more circumsc ribed in impact, racial inequality and labor supply and demand also af fected incarceration in the chain gang. The author considers direction s for future research and theory.