Historicizing Extramural Convict Labour: Trajectories and Transitions in Early Modern Europe

Heinsen, Johan

doi:10.1017/s0020859020000498

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

Navigating Imprisonment: Tactics and Experiences in an Eighteenth-Century Danish Prison Workhouse

Valentin

2023

Palgrave Studies in the History of Experience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the latter decades of the eighteenth century, thousands of inmates were sentenced to the prison workhouse at Christianshavn for crimes ranging from begging and vagrancy to theft and even murder. Situated between the system of poor relief and the penal system, the prison was a complicated, almost hybrid institution featuring both disciplinary and caring obligations to its inmates. Although the inmates shared a common relationship to the authorities and the same constraints of navigating a system of coercion in their favor, their experiences varied greatly. From the perspective of three inmates’ experiences within the prison workhouse and inspired by Michel de Certeau’s concept of tactics and strategies, this chapter examines different experiences of imprisonment. By exploring the differences of experience in the prison workhouse, the chapter underlines the plurality of shared experiences for a more complex and contextual understanding of the ever-evolving prison system.

show abstract

Navigating Imprisonment: Tactics and Experiences in an Eighteenth-Century Danish Prison Workhouse

Valentin

2023

Palgrave Studies in the History of Experience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Introduction: Punitive Perspectives on Labour Management

Vito

Fagbore

2023

Int Rev of Soc His

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

What is the historical role of punishment in the management of labour? This is the central question of this Special Issue of the International Review of Social History (IRSH), “Punishing Workers, Managing Labour”. Through a close reading of the diverse range of articles included in this Special Issue and by addressing the relatively extensive but highly fragmented scholarship on the subject, this introduction argues that the key to labour management lay in the interplay of differentiated forms of punishment with distinct labour relations, rather than in the imposition of one punitive regime onto an undifferentiated workforce. In other words, the effective management of labour required the systematic differentiation of the workforce; to that end, the imposition of diversified forms of punishment did not merely reflect existing labour distinctions, but also contributed to creating them. This point leads us to address broader methodological and theoretical issues about how we can analyse such complex interactions: how we can compare the role of punishment in the management of labour across space and time, and how our findings can be used to explain short- and long-term historical changes.

show abstract

Mercenary Punishment: Penal Logics in the Military Labour Market

Heinsen¹

2023

Int Rev of Soc His

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the entangled logics of corporal and carceral punishments of mercenary soldiers in eighteenth-century Denmark. Beginning with the story of a single man and his unfortunate trajectory through a sequence of punitive measures before his death as a prison workhouse inmate, the article looks at how punishments of soldiers communicated in multiple ways and were used to a variety of ends that were both typical and atypical within eighteenth-century society. It argues that soldiers experienced a breadth of both corporal and carceral punishments that were, in many cases, designed to limit otherness while communicating exemplarity along a fine-tuned spectrum of pain. The clearest example of this was running the gauntlet; a harrowing physical ordeal meted out by the offender's fellow soldiers. Turning to the carceral experiences often initiated by this ritual, it then examines how former mercenaries experienced convict labour differently from other occupational groups based on several factors. Their gender and occupational belonging meant they were funnelled towards specific penal institutions. Yet, their status as migrants and potential military labour meant they would often exit these institutions in specific ways. Whereas civilians often endured dishonouring punishments, ex-military convicts experienced punishments designed to inflict great pain without rendering them unfit for later military labour.

show abstract

Historicizing Extramural Convict Labour: Trajectories and Transitions in Early Modern Europe

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

Navigating Imprisonment: Tactics and Experiences in an Eighteenth-Century Danish Prison Workhouse

Navigating Imprisonment: Tactics and Experiences in an Eighteenth-Century Danish Prison Workhouse

Introduction: Punitive Perspectives on Labour Management

Mercenary Punishment: Penal Logics in the Military Labour Market

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About