Slavery’s Carceral Legacy

A burgeoning social scientific literature on the place-based legacy of slavery has mostly overlooked the effect of slavery on incarceration, despite the fact that the intensity and racial disparity of US incarceration is often attributed to its history of slavery. I analyze data on incarceration from 1840 to 2020 and show that the historic prevalence of slavery tends to be negatively associated with Black incarceration, especially under Reconstruction and Jim Crow (1870–1940). In line with recent work by Christopher Muller, I argue this is partly explained by white planters paying the fines of Black convicts, who would then have to work off the debt or suffer imprisonment. I conclude that the existing literature is not wrong to assume that Southern incarceration was shaped by slavery. But it shaped it in surprising ways that previous work has often failed to identify.