Digital Snapshots

Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman)

Instances of Prisoner Labor

This exhibit features photographs that show instances of the agricultural, industrial, and overall physical labor that individuals endured while incarcerated at the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman).

  • Men on a semi-constructed building with construction materials

    Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) Photographs, Item 3; ca. 1914

    Male prisoners constructing brick building.

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  • Men in a cottonfield

    Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) Photographs, Item 6; ca. 1914

    Male prisoners picking cotton.

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  • Men baling hay with a machine

    Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) Photographs, Item 24; undated

    Parchman Penal Farm. Five male prisoners working with baling machine. Baled hay stacked in foreground. Unbaled straw in background.

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  • Men baling alfalfa with a machine

    Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) Photographs, Item 25; 1929

    "Alfalfa." Parchman Farm. Nine male workers in alfalfa field. Pile of cut alfalfa, baling machine and stacks of baled alfalfa on ground and loaded on truck.

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  • Black women prepping and sewing fabric

    Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) Photographs, Item 67; ca. 1930s

    Parchman Penitentiary. Female prisoners sewing.

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  • Line of black men hoeing a field

    Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) Photographs, Item 83; undated

    Parchman Penal Farm. Male prisoners hoeing in a field.

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  • Men scraping and replacing shingles on a brick building

    Parchman (Mississippi State Penitentiary) Photograph Booklet, Item 18; undated

    Recovering Hospital

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