Prison Labor, with Tables Showing the Proportion of Convict to Citizen Labor, in the Prisons of the State of New York, and of the United States.
Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1885. 54 pp., 8vo. Original printed gray wrappers. Very good, with minor soiling and small tears to wrappers, and an early notation at the upper corner of the front wrapper. Item #BK0176 A defense of contract prison labor by John Sherwood Perry, a New York manufacturer who operated an enormous stove-making business employing prisoners at Sing Sing. Perry began contracting for labor at the prison in the 1870s, and by the early 1880s employed more than 1,300 inmates in his manufacturing operations. His use of prison labor brought him into direct conflict with organized labor, particularly iron molders who objected to competition from cheaply produced prison goods. The pamphlet was published during a period of growing opposition to the contract labor system, which allowed private manufacturers to employ prisoners at a fraction of the cost of free labor. Perry argues that prison industries represented too small a proportion of American manufacturing to constitute a serious threat to ordinary workers, supporting his position with extensive statistical tables comparing convict and civilian employment in New York and other states. An interesting contemporary defense of prison labor by one of its principal beneficiaries, whose operations at Sing Sing were central to the controversy over the use of incarcerated workers in American manufacturing during the 1880s.
Price: $175.00