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Men in striped prison uniforms line the porch of a long building. In front, there is a field of plants and a long dining table and a fence.
Incarcerated men line the porch of Parchman Penitentiary. (Photo: Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

Parchman Farm in Mississippi, a former plantation, becomes a prison with "convict labor."

1904

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Incarcerated men line the porch of Parchman Penitentiary. (Photo: Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

People incarcerated at the Parchman Farm Penitentiary are forced into harsh labor conditions that are described as “the closest thing to slavery that survived the Civil War" (Oshinsky, 1997). They have to work sunup to sundown under the control of armed guards. The prison still exists today.