Alabama Penitentiary: Prison Labor before and after the Civil War (Teaching with Historic Places)

One of the first state prisons built in the South, the Alabama State Penitentiary was built as part of the effort to standardize criminal justice in the state. It was modeled after the work-based prison reform in the northern states, which had started to spread west, then south. Prison labor was at the center of the operation, but the nature of that labor changed to reflect antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction political and racial dynamics. In this lesson, students analyze the role of work in prisons and larger southern society in the 19th century.

About this Lesson

This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places nomination for Alabama State Penitentiary, the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. It was written by Alison Russell, an intern with the Cultural Resource Office of Interpretation and Education. This lesson is one in a series that brings the important stories of historical places into conversation with current debates to classrooms across the country.

Objectives for students

1. To discuss the social and economic roles of prisons in the 19th century

2. To compare the role of prisons in the Southern economy before and after the abolition of slavery and the 13th amendment

3. To connect the racial policies of prisons with larger economic and political trends in the South

Materials for Students

The materials listed below can either be used directly on the computer or can be printed out, photocopied, and distributed directly to students.

1. Postcard from Wetumpka Alabama depicting the prison

2. Background reading on the Alabama penitentiary

3. Newspaper article from 1848

4. Newspaper article from 1899

5. Three blueprints Calhoun County Jail

Where it fits into the Curriculum

Topics: This lesson could be used in American history Units on antebellum or Reconstruction United States. It can be used to talk about reform movements, Jim Crow, and the economic development of the South.

Time Period: 19th century

Relevant United States History Standards for Grades 5-12

This lesson relates to the following National Standards for History from the UCLA National Center for History in the Schools:

US History Era 4:

Standard 2: How the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions

Standard 4: The sources and character of cultural, religious, and social reform movements in the antebellum period

US History Era 5:

Standard 2: The course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people

US History Era 6:

Standard 1: How the rise of corporations, heavy industry, and mechanized farming transformed the American people

Relevant Common Core Standards

This lesson relates to the following Common Core English and Language Arts Standards for History and Social Studies for middle and high school students:

Key Ideas and Details
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7: Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

Inquiry Question

What is the goal of prison in American society? How do prisons enforce (or reinforce) cultural expectations of good behavior or good people? What, then, is the purpose of prison labor?

Warm Up: Students examine this Postcard from Wetumpka, Alabama.

Postcard of Alabama Penitentiary. Courtesy Alabama Department of Archives and History, https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/photo/id/21448/rec/1

1. What do you think this building is for?

2. What details support your inference?

Tell students that this is a penitentiary (they may have already guessed from the stamp in the corner). Then discuss:

1. What about this building surprises you? Why?

2. Why do you think the prison looks this way? What does that tell you about prisons in the early 19th century?

Terms to Know

• Prison: A place those convicted of serious crimes are put to serve a longer sentence (usually more than 12 months)

• Jail: A place for those awaiting trial or held for minor crimes, often a county or local institution, (usually less than 12 months)

• Detention Center: Usually a place for juveniles who have been charged or convicted of a crime

• Penitentiary: a public institution in which offenders against the law are confined for detention or punishment.

• State v. federal prisons and penitentiaries: Because the United States uses a system of federalism, there are federal prisons and penitentiaries as well as prison systems run by each state. This lesson focuses on the state of Alabama. The rules and practices differ from state to state as well as at the federal level

Background Reading:

The Alabama legislature approved construction of the Alabama Penitentiary in Wetumpka in 1839, the same year that the first Alabama state criminal code was passed. It had 208 cells and 30 feet high walls, earning it the nickname “The Walls of Alabama” or just “The Walls.”1 Modelled after the Tennessee state prison, it was part of the larger prison reform movement that originated in Northern states. These prison reforms shared an emphasis on rehabilitation. To prepare people convicted of a crime to reenter society, prison officials enforced silent contemplation and long workdays. The first person imprisoned was charged with twenty years in prison for harboring a runaway slave. The prison population was majority white, mostly immigrants, with 1% of the population being free African Americans.2 Enslaved African Americans could not be tried in the courts and were turned over to slave owners for extralegal punishment.

The Alabama Penitentiary was meant to be self-sufficient. To counter criticism that a state prison was a costly increase of state power, incarcerated peoples’ work would help pay for operating the institution. The penitentiary almost immediately came under public scrutiny for failing to cover those costs. As a result, the state leased it to private operators. This was one of the first examples of private prisons, a practice that would be common in the twentieth century. The prison returned to state control after a man in the prison killed the warden in 1862. Imprisoned workers made supplies for Confederate troops during the Civil War. Union troops released all those still in the penitentiary in 1865.

After the Civil War, the prison reopened and was once again leased to private operators. In 1866, Baker Kyle was appointed Inspector of the penitentiary becoming Alabama’s first Black high ranking prison official. The prison population changed from 99% white to 90% Black within a decade of the Civil War.3 The prison leased men who were incarcerated to private organizations to work outside “The Walls.” This practice of leasing was common in the United States, particularly in the South, after the Civil War. People imprisoned, mostly African American, found themselves working for agricultural or industrial factories. They were vital to rebuilding the railroad system. Some historians have compared this to a second slavery. The imprisoned men's’ forced labor continued to do jobs that supported the southern economy without pay. Other historians argue that convict leasing was part of larger Jim Crow policies, but not a central economic piece. The high rates of imprisonment and labor helped the white power structure intimidate African Americans in the South. Finally, while some historians recognize the unfair laws, they categorize convict leasing as part of general trends in crime and punishment in the U.S.4 In the 1880s, prison reformers including Julia Tutwiler worked to improve the prison system and provide better treatment to those incarcerated. These efforts continued with varying degrees of success as the Alabama prison system expanded in the late 19th and early 20th century to accommodate a growing prison population.

In the 1922, Alabama opened Kirby Prison and converted Wetumpka prison (formerly Alabama State Penitentiary) to an all-female prison. It closed in 1942. In 2021, the Alabama Department of Corrections has close to 26,000 people incarcerated and predicts “the Department will continue to grow in size.”5

Activity One:

Read the following two newspaper articles, one from before the Civil War and one from after the Civil War. Answer the questions about each article. Then, use the two articles to compare the prison system in the two eras.

Document 1: Graham, John G. “Alabama Penitentiary” Wetumpka, AL: The State Guard, April 25, 1848. Pg. 4. From Chronicling America

The undersigned having leased the above institution [Alabama Penitentiary] for a term of years and thereby relieved the whole people of Alabama from an annual tax of several thousand dollars, hereby confidently appeal to the generous aid of his friends and the liberal patronage of the citizens of the State generally; but not relying solely upon the generosity of the one, or the liberality of the other, he avails himself of this opportunity to announce that having engaged the services of head workmen of long experience, and of unquestioned good character, to superintend the various departments, he is prepared to fill orders in most of the Mechanical Branches, with as much neatness, and workman-like style, as can be done in any of the Northern cities; and that he expects and is determined to give entire satisfaction to all who may patronize him, and thus make it to THEIR OWN INTEREST TO DO SO; that all work done in the Penitentiary shall be WARRANTED, and any deficiency in the same, will be repaired free of charge; that he is making every exertion to procure the best of material for every branch of labor he is carrying on; that fully aware of the deep interests he has at stake, he is determined to make reputation for the work he turns out, and therefore, insists that the work heretofore executed, under the state administration, shall not be the criterion by which he shall be judged. One fair trial is all he asks to ensure a continuance of patronage.

He has on hand,

8,000 pr Russet brogans [shoes] from 50 cts to $1 per pair

1,000 pr Black brogans from 75 to $1.25...

Coopering of all kinds on hand and made to order.

Sign and Ornamental painting done in the neatest manner.

Furniture of all kinds made to order and a variety on hand...

I will barter any of the above named articles for good sound hides, or any articles that may be needed at said Institution.

It is suggested that orders for Negro Shoes should be sent on as soon as possible....

• JOHN G. GRAHAM. Lessee, July 13, 1847.

Reading Questions:

1. Who is the author of the announcement? What might that tell us about the way the prison is run?

2. What is the purpose of announcement? What does that tell us about the prison before the Civil War?

3. Why do you think the author refers to what can be done in “Northern cities”? How does this article fit into the larger economic comparisons between the North and the South?

4. The article made a distinction for “Negro shoes.” Otherwise, there is no reference to race in the article. Based on the background reading and your knowledge of United States history before the Civil War, what inferences can you make about race and prisons from this passage?

5. What can you infer about the way the prison works that is not directly stated in the announcement about the role of prisons and prisoners? What details help you make that inference?

The Age Herald. Library of Congress, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072192/1899-07-16/ed-1/seq-9/

Document 2: “Alabama Penitentiary; Improvements at Capital” by J. - W. D. Birmingham, AL: The Age-Herald No 144, July 1899, Section 2. From Chronicling America

We have in Alabama an attractive asset. We have a money-making, state-developing penology; mostly an idea of our own. Why not go further with it?...

Of every 100 penal colonists of this state 85 are negroes of all ages and both sexes.

We come to the latter development of discipline over the negro and the reconstruction of the penitentiary, shifting the institution from its original basis to the XIV amendment...

The male convicts are sent in from the county jails in various conditions of health and capacities for labor. ... The Ward Lumber company employs some. Lewis H. McCurdy of Lownes county employs 50 as cotton field hands; the lime works at Calera; the coal mines of Jefferson county; the Bell saw mill and farm on the Tennessee rive, et[c]. have others.

McCurdy pays $3 per month for the class he takes; the mines pay $14 for the best men they take, and other contractors pay these rates, according to class.

There are three plantations, one of 4,000 acres at Speigners, fifteen miles north of Montgomery; one near Wetumpka, and the third in Montgomery county, on the Tallapoosa. From five hundred to six hundred convicts live on these plantations.

----

The property in farming lands and tilled farms and farm buildings owned by the state is most valuable. The fertility of the soil, the abundant supply of pure drinking water on all and the never failing replenishment of obedient and efficient labor, are some of the recommendation to it. A variety of crops, well cultivated, are now to be found on all plantations. Cotton culture takes a prominent and essential place in the farming. The work is suited to the labor that comes to it. It would be hard to find any other crop to answer the purpose. The cotton mill at Speigners converts 5 cents of raw cotton into 15 cents worth of textiles by labor that really costs the state little or nothing, because the same persons are a charge on the state in the course of things. The mill uses some eighteen bales of cotton per week. Ledbetter, the superintendent, is a Tuscaloosa county man, trained in the Fitts mill. He gets about 52 yards of sheetings from convicts in the time that free labor would turn out 56 yards, the convict labor liable to frequent changes from trained to raw, whereas free labor seldom changes. That is a good showing....

Note: There is more information in the full article to facilitate a conversation about race. The article contains content that may be disturbing to students. Teachers should use their best judgement if pulling additional material.

Reading Questions:

1. What does this article tell us about the structure of the Alabama prisons after the Civil War?

2. What is the role of convicted workers? To what extent is this article concerned with the people who do the work?

3. How does this article address the issue of race? How does that fit with other attitudes and policies in the United States at the time?

4. The article cites the 14th Amendment. The 13th amendment ended slavery except “as a punishment for a crime.” The 14th Amendment held states to the same standard as the federal government, preventing a State from “depriving any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.” Why do you think the 14th Amendment was cited in this article about convict leasing at the Alabama Penitentiary and not the 13th?

5. What can we infer about the role of prisons that is not directly stated in the article? What details help us make those inferences?

Questions for Comparison:

1. What type of work is done by people in the prison before and after the Civil War? Where is that work done?

2. How successful or profitable is the work being done in each article? How do you know?

3. What do you see or infer about race in the prison before and after the civil war? What text gives you clues?

4. Why do you think the organization and work changed in the prison before and after the Civil War. Connect specific details to what you know about Southern society in the late 19th century.
   

Activity Two:

Alabama penitentiary housed both males and females after the Civil War before being turned into a Women’s prison in 1922. The design of the place itself demonstrated the expectations for the prison, particularly in segregated Jim Crow. The blueprints below were for the Calhoun County Jail in Anniston Alabama, from the Jim Crow era. Despite being labeled a women’s prison, the plans include space for a men’s and women’s section. Have students look at the drawings and draw some conclusions about the role of race and prison in the late 19th century.

“Prison Inspector, Plans and blueprints of county jails and almshouses, 1907-1939” and n.d., Government Records Collections, Alabama Department of Archives and History https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/maps/id/1471

Architectural drawings of an unidentified women's prison in Alabama. Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History, https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/maps/id/1463

“This specification shall include all window guards of Main Corridor and Passage, two Hospital Cells, Juvenile Cell, Lock Room, Female White Ward, Insane Cell and Female Col. War first floor....the wall lining of the Male White section and colored Male section...”

1. What do you notice about the size of the cells labeled for different inhabitants? For male and female? For African American and white?

2. What does the size and shape of the cells cause you to infer about expectations and use of the prison? Why?

3. This is not the Alabama State Penitentiary but a smaller prison in Alabama. Based on the readings, do you think was similar and different in Alabama State Penitentiary? How do the drawings support or refute what we learned about race in the previous sources?

4. Why does the way prisons are designed matter for a conversation about the way prisons are run or reformed? What influence does space and form have on function when it comes to prisons? Other types of buildings?

Wrap Up:

1. What surprised you about Alabama Prisons and how they changed over the course of the 19th century?

2. What is similar and different about prisons today? If you need to, visit the website of your state or national Department of Corrections. What do they say their mission is? How many people are in the system? Do they provide a demographic breakdown? Do they include work, either inside or outside the prison, as part of their institution?

3. How does building design influence the conditions in the building? How does your school help facilitate learning? Are there parts of the building that hurt that function? Think about how to design a space that makes it more useful to the people in it? How could a school be designed to make students’ experience better? How could a prison be designed to help support incarcerated people to be successful when they are no longer in prison?

Further Reading:

Building a New Prison: Prisoners at Work

Prison labor happened all over the country. Students can look at this series of articles about Alcatraz to learn how political prisoners and incarcerated soldiers rebuilt the prison that would hold them. Thoughtful questions end each short passage.

More on Jails, Prisons and Incarceration

For more information on incarceration, visit the National Park Service Jails, Prison and Incarceration page. It links to other historic sites related to jails and prisons, as well as other resources to help you learn more. Some places,, like Alcatraz, are well known. Use the links to discover lesser known histories of incarceration in the United States.

Eastern State Penitentiary

Visit the website of “America’s Most Historic Prison” and take the online tour. Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1929 and was a precursor to the Alabama State Penitentiary in its theory about work and reform.