Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture by J. Nicholas Reid

In 2008, Joseph C. Miller explored the historical process of slaving, aiming to understand why people repeatedly engaged in this strategy throughout history. He criticized Orlando Patterson's definition of slavery as it limited slaves to rebelling against their masters. Instead, Miller believed historians should recognize the vitality and humanity of slaves. Building on Miller's approach, this lecture examines imprisonment as a historical process, focusing on ancient Mesopotamia. It seeks to understand who imprisoned, for what reasons, and in what contexts. Just like slaving, imprisonment took various forms throughout history. The lecture emphasizes the importance of considering personhood when studying prisons and prisoners by examining early historical records related to imprisonment.