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Social Science Hispanic American Studies

Southern Mercy

Empire and American Civilization in Juvenile Reform, 1890-1944

by (author) Annette Louise Bickford

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2016
Category
Hispanic American Studies, Criminology, General, Cultural, History
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781442645745
    Publish Date
    Nov 2016
    List Price
    $89.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442613980
    Publish Date
    Nov 2016
    List Price
    $43.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442663534
    Publish Date
    Jan 2017
    List Price
    $33.95

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Description

From the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century juvenile reformatories served as citizen-building institutions and a political tool of state racism in post-emancipation America. New South advocates cemented their regional affiliation by using these reformatories to showcase mercies which were racialized, gendered, and linked to sexuality.

Southern Mercy uses four historical examples of juvenile reformatories in North Carolina to explore how spectacles of mercy have influenced Southern modernity. Working through archival material pertaining to race and moral uplift, including rare photos from the private archives of Samarcand Manor (the State Home and Industrial Manor for Girls) and restricted archival records of reformatory racial policies, Annette Bickford examines the limits of emancipation, and the exclusions inherent in liberal humanism that distinguish racism in the contemporary "post-race" era.

About the author

Annette Bickford is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Science at York University.

Annette Louise Bickford's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Southern Mercy is a fascinating study of North Carolina’s juvenile reform institutions from their founding to the World War II era…Bickford joins a broader conversation about Enlightenment-based liberal humanism as fundamentally underwritten by systemic racism and sexism."

The Journal of American History, Sept. 2018

"Annette Louise Bickford inquires as to the degree of mercy that operated in early-twentieth century juvenile reform in the U.S. South … The book offers excellent archival research about the realities of life in mid-century juvenile reformatories… Her theoretical framework grounded in a critique of liberal humanism is intriguing and should raise interest especially among graduate students. "

The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 3, 1 June 2018