To the Dark Cells: Prisoner Resistance and Protest in Nineteenth-century Britain

This study of nineteenth-century British prisoner resistance and protest uses government reports, unpublished prison governor journals, and prisoner memoirs to uncover the variety of ways in which prisoners reacted against their treatment. It also explores how a racialized view of the criminal and fears of social disorder were contributing factors behind the harsh and often abusive experience that prisoners encountered after mid-century. The result is a critique of the prevailing view that prisoners were passive, non-factors during this period of prison history. Some types of nineteenth-century prisoner disobedience are shown to be purposeful, symbolic actions reminiscent of eighteenth-century popular protest. Such prisoner action is presented as a common feature of the nineteenth-century British prison that worked to moderate oppression and abuse and influenced the development of the prison in often subtle but significant ways.