Talk:Chain gang

message: Why the big section on slavery? In the U.S. for example, chain-gang is far from slavery, requiring, among other things: conviction of a serious crime, the option of a jury trial, access to legal counsel and appeals, definite periods of confinement, Constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment, etc... The obvious reasons for blurring the line by introducing and even explicitly stating that chain ganging is slavery is to thereby attach an equal stigma to chain-gangs as is attached with slavery.
:More importantly, slavery is legal for prisoners. Read the 14th amendment.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.122.63.142 (talk) 15:34, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you mean the 13th amendment not the 14th, but your right that the amendment does say "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" twfowler (talk) 14:59, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

text: Having reviewed the history (I did not write the original version), I agree it had a POV problem, but the association between chain gangs and slavery is almost universal among historians. this view, for example, is not at all controversial historically. I'll try to clean up the article and make it more informative. Ken 08:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In the deep south (Alabama/Mississippi/Arkansas) before the civil rights movement (and to a lesser-extent, up until present day), it historically didn't take much for a Black man to get convicted of a trivial crime and sentenced to hard time. This typically included chain-gang time. Look at Jim Crow laws and other attempts to subjugate African Americans; chain gangs are---in many cases---more of the same. In this context, it is understandable, and even essential, that the link to slavery be acknowledged.  Safety Cap 15:32, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Slavery

message: I just got back from visiting Clallam County, Washington, USA, the other day, and was supprised to see chain gangs in use there.  They do not work chained together, but do ware chains from their legs to their waists, and do manual labour.  We saw a sign stating that a section of highway had its litter collected by chain gang members, and we were woken at our campsite by chain gang members building a mountain bike trail.  It caught us rather off guard.  The side of the truck they were being transported in said in large official letters "Chain Gang", however this article seems to say that the practice has been eliminated in the USA.  What's going on here?  --Keithonearth (talk) 17:25, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Here's a link to their website.--Keithonearth (talk) 21:58, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clallam County, Washington, USA 

message: the article admits that media and others refer to prisoners who are chained together, but not working, as a chain gang, yet casts it off as if it's just wrong. Language changes and is not a science, so if media is starting to refer to inmates chained together (who are not working) as a chain gang, and the article wants to mention this fact, it should be in the sense that the definition may be changing to a new usage, not that it's just wrong. Words are always defined by how they are used, and media have a special influence on the matter. Dancindazed (talk) 04:19, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article seems to ignore usage as a valid source for a definition 

message: An RfC: Which descriptor, if any, can be added in front of Southern Poverty Law Center when referenced in other articles? has been posted at the Southern Poverty Law Center talk page. Your participation is welcomed. – MrX 16:35, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  RfC 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that :File:A Southern chain gang c1903-restore.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on August 25, 2017. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2017-08-25. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 01:40, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:File:A Southern chain gang c1903-restore.jpg]] to appear as POTD soon 

message: I saw a road side chain gange in southern Virginia near the North Carolina border in the summer of 1972. WhoAmIYouDoNotKnow (talk) 02:07, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Virginia 1972 

message: When I was a correctional officer in FL in the 70s, we had a few chain gangs. While I worked graveyard shift and was rarely at the prison after sunrise, sometimes I had to show up for firearms qualification, classes,  riot squad training. I could observe, from the parking lot, the chain gang being marched out to work the farm that fed the inmates. We used ankle irons, no ball, not connected to each other, and armed guards. 74.40.116.36 (talk) 21:33, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Chain gangs