For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of women; from the brutal constraints of Jim Crow to our own era's prison industrial complex, where between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by 700%.* For those women who lived and died resisting the dehumanization of confinement--physical, social, intellectual--the threat of being bound was real, constant, and lethal. From Harriet Tubman to Assata Shakur, Ida B. Wells to Sandra Bland and Black Lives Matter, black women freedom fighters have braved violence, scorn, despair, and isolation in order to lodge their protests. In A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, DaMaris Hill honors their experiences with at times harrowing, at times hopeful responses to her heroes, illustrated with black-and-white photographs throughout.

1. Bound -- Harriet Beecher Spruill-Hill -- Shut up in my bones -- Lucille Clifton -- In the garden -- Study the masters -- Liz Lucille -- Lucy Sayles -- Licorice for Lucy -- 2. Bound.fettered. -- Annie Cutler -- The concession of Annie Cutler -- Alice Clifton -- The love song of Alice Clifton -- Black Bess -- A mermaid's stroll -- Ella Jackson -- Bewitches -- Em Less and Stella Weldon -- Em Lee's sweet on Stella -- Mary Hannah Tabbs -- Lust and gaines -- Ida Howard -- What you oughta know about Ida -- Laura Williams -- Stewing -- Annie Wilson -- Frisk -- Black white criminality in insane asylum -- Black bird medley -- 3. Bound/demarcation; boundaries -- Ida B. Wells -- There are thieves in the temples -- Translation 1 -- Translation 2 -- Translation 3 -- Translation 4 -- Translation 5 -- Translation 6 -- Translation 7 -- Zora Neale Hurston -- Claudia Jones -- Earth Kitt -- Sonia Sanchez -- This granny is a gangster -- Sandra Bland -- #Sandyspeaks is a choral refrain -- 4. Bound hurdle; spring forth -- Harriet Tubman -- Harriet is holy -- Joan little -- Roby McCollum -- Grace Jones -- Amazing grace and unloved gentiles -- Fannie Lou Hamer -- Magnolia's state -- 5. Bound-hem; hemmed in (for Assata Shakur) -- Assata Shakur -- Revolution: Assata in 1956 -- Retina: Assata in 1970 -- Every black women knows the constitution: Assata in 1972 -- Truth is a mirror in the hands of God: Assata in 1976 -- Exodus: Assata in 1979 -- The education of the taw marble: Assata a timeless lesson in geography and geometry -- A reckoning: Assata in 1980 -- Space program: Assata in 1981 -- The arms race/the war on drugs: Assata in 1984 -- 6. Bound hinge -- Gynnya McMillen -- Trainers for Gynnya McMillen -- 7. Patriot and prisoner -- Coping -- A recipe for a son -- Gabriel casts a knuckle -- Remains -- Praying for sons -- Acknowledgements -- Citations -- Photo credits