Abstract
ANTEBELLUM PRISONERS WERE OBSCURE men and women. They appeared in historical records when they encountered the law that convicted them and the penitentiary that confned them. Off cial records stripped prisoners of their individuality by reducing them to a bundle of abstractions: name, age, sex, complexion, crime, length of sentence, place of conviction, distinguishing characteristics, and inmate number. Prisoners also appeared in annual reports presented by prison off cials to state legislatures, wardens’ daily journals, cellblock logs, punishment logs, and the meeting minutes of reform societies such as the Pennsylvania Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. Through writing diaries, letters, poetry, and memoirs, prisoners reclaimed their individuality by presenting their own experiences in their own words. Viewing antebellum penitentiaries through prisoners’ eyes makes clear how prisoners shaped life inside the nation’s penitentiaries, interpreted incarceration, and were affected by the experience of incarceration.