Louisiana State Penitentiary
The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former slave plantation that occupied this territory. The plantation was named after the country of Angola, from which many slaves originated before arriving in Louisiana.
The entrance to the Louisiana State Penitentiary has a guard house that controls entry into the compound—the sign says "Louisiana State Penitentiary" and "Burl Cain, Warden"
Picking cotton at Angola, c. 1900
Riverboat America with convicts and supplies on the Mississippi River, circa late 1800s
Samuel Lawrence James
A prison farm is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are forced to work—legally or illegally—on a farm, usually for manual labor, largely in the open air, such as in agriculture, logging, quarrying, and mining. In the United States, such forced labor is made legal by the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution; however, some other parts of the world have made penal labor illegal. The concepts of prison farm and labor camp overlap, with the idea that the prisoners are forced to work. The historical equivalent on a very large scale was called a penal colony.
Mississippi State Penitentiary, an American prison farm in Sunflower County, Mississippi
Louisiana State Penitentiary, an American prison farm in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
This is the 13th Amendment that Abraham Lincoln signed.
The Clemens Unit, a prison farm in Brazoria County, Texas
