From the country's founding, American women have protested against
their government, a government which is undemocratic, militaristic,
patriarchal, racist and based on greed and profit. It is past time to
acknowledge, since America has become an openly authoritarian,
corporate state, that it has and always has had, political prisoners.
Women have always been among dissenters against the government, and
because women are already automatically suspect and "unnatural"
for voicing and acting upon their beliefs, women politicals have been
jailed, beaten and sometimes tortured. The US has never been a nation
with equality, democracy, human rights, or freedom. By following the
disposition of its dissenters, particularly its female dissenters, it
becomes clear that America, ruled by a patriarchal, racist elite from
its colonial days, was not tolerant of rebels. Massachusetts Bay
would not forgive Anne Hutchinson's dissent from Governor Winthrop's
religious elite rule; the American colonial authorities considered
Mother Anne Lee's Shaker pacifism treason, so she was called a witch,
raped and jailed. In the 1980s, anti-imperialists Susan Rosenberg and
Alejandrina Torres were put in solitary in a high security unit
designed to make them repent or kill themselves. Lynne Stewart,
breast cancer or not, was given a long jail sentence for defending
her Muslim client in 2010. The US has always cracked down on dissent,
notably against anti-capitalist and anti-racist dissent of all types
through time, and also to stop anti-imperialist dissent which exposed
its military empire. Women dissidents have had particular experiences
as prisoners. There are constant searches and pat downs by male
guards, and constant threats of rape and sexual humiliation. The
isolation of women from family is also effective as punishment.
Prison has presented unique problems for women: pregnancy, relations
with children, spouses and family, and female-related disease and
injury. Prison authorities have also had unique opportunities to play
on female psychology and exploit the usual female roles of being
submissive and dependent. American women have held deep political
convictions throughout our history, and when they ran counter to the
established political culture, they have been severely punished for
them. America has had the dual mission, and challenge, of stopping
dissent while maintaining its image of having no dissent because it,
as a paragon state, needs no dissent. My goal with this book is, as a
feminist historian, to help expose the American corporate elitist
state, always patriarchal and racist, for what it was, and is.