Architecture of oppression : slave fortresses and their relevance to contemporary American urban prison architecture

No discussion on architecture and race would be complete without a look at the slave fortresses of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The importation of African slaves to the Americas was the economic catalyst that subsequently catapulted America in a world superpower, and questionably into imperial leadership. Speckled along the coast of West Africa, the architecture of the slave trade is as monumental and systematically oppressive as the institution it sustained. Due to the rise in prison privatization and the common practice of leasing prison labor to corporations while paying the offenders a menial fee, the American prison industry is operating more and more like slave fortresses. Spatially, the spaces are particularly similar in the areas of exterior formal qualities and parallel evolution of urban planning.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Whisby, Afiya A

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lawrence Sass.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62978

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/62978