Walnut Street Prison
Linked resources
Items linked to this Document
| Title | Description | Class |
|---|---|---|
 The Carceral State: Legal Histories of American Unfreedom |
This teaching module discusses race, the carceral state, and the criminalization of Blackness, featuring a webinar with legal historian Taja-Nia Henderson. |
- Title
- Walnut Street Prison
- Description
- An etching of the Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia. Established as a city jail in 1773, it was expanded in 1790 to become the first state penitentiary in the new country. This prison was among the first to feature individual cells and was built to accommodate work details. The penitentiary was noted to have a larger percentage of Black inmates than white, noting the racialization of incarceration in the United States. The prison was in operation until 1838.
- Date
- 1789
- Legal Concept
- Incarceration
- Document Type
- Image
- Document Category
- Primary Source
- Archival Source
- James Peller Malcolm. The Jail, Philada. 1789. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
- Digital Repository
- Library of Congress
- Title
- Walnut Street Prison
- Description
- An etching of the Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia. Established as a city jail in 1773, it was expanded in 1790 to become the first state penitentiary in the new country. This prison was among the first to feature individual cells and was built to accommodate work details. The penitentiary was noted to have a larger percentage of Black inmates than white, noting the racialization of incarceration in the United States. The prison was in operation until 1838.
- Date
- 1789
- Legal Concept
- Incarceration
- Document Type
- Image
- Document Category
- Primary Source
- Archival Source
- James Peller Malcolm. The Jail, Philada. 1789. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
- Digital Repository
- Library of Congress