Confinable People: A History of the Internment Camp in the United States, 1850–1945

In times of crisis, the United States government sought to confine marginalized (non-white) persons in internment camps. The camps, varying in degrees of control, were oftentimes hastily erected and poorly equipped with even basic necessities for survival. This poster will focus on three types of these camps: the “contraband” camps during the Civil War; Bosque Redondo’s internment camp that housed Navajos following the Long Walk; and the camps where persons of Japanese ancestry were evacuated to during WWII. There is rich literature on each of these spaces. The intention of this poster, however, is not to discuss the camps individually. Rather, the purpose of the poster is to visually articulate how the camps are not only intrinsically connected to one another, but how they reside within a larger framework of control. The ad hoc nature of the camps included in this poster suggests that they were constructed without reference to a single modality or existing pattern of confinement. I argue that the federal government incorporated the technology of slavery as the modality of control for the internment camps. Government and military leaders leaned on racist and prejudicial beliefs to justify their actions within these liminal spaces. Yet, the trauma inflicted on inmates in these camps finds footing in slavery’s framework of racialized confinement and violence.

For clarity, the poster will feature the dialogue about slavery at the top of the poster. This section will include the thesis/ argument. The three types of camps will be featured directly below the section on slavery, moving from left to right in chronological order. Each section will be clearly demarcated, but there will also be arrows or other clear connecting lines depicting continuities between the camps. An image—likely a photograph—will be included in each section. The conclusion will be on the bottom of the poster, centered underneath the camps sections.