Childs, D: Slaves of the State Black Incarceration from the Chain Gang to the Penitentiary

"Slaves of the State cannot receive enough superlatives: eye-opening, deeply disturbing, intellectually stimulating, terrible, brilliant. Dennis Childs has written a moving and intricately researched book, which weaves novels and memory, the past and the present, ancient artifacts and modern tools of repression to reveal an unwelcome truth about modern day America and the biggest prison system on earth."-Mumia Abu-Jamal, author of Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal

"Dennis Childs 'digs a ditch' in Slaves of the State, laboring to present the tortured captives of chain gangs and penitentiaries in ways that bring the captors to shame. With incisive scholarship, Childs analyzes the terrors of black incarceration and trauma. This daring book simplifies a democracy corrupted by penal enslavement. Its haunting critique of the racial-sexual production of misery and ghosts, through the 'terrorizing structure of US penal law,' needs to be read and remembered."-Joy James, author of Seeking the Beloved Community