Convict leasing facts for kids

Convict leasing was a system in the Southern United States where prisoners were forced to work for private companies or individuals. This system mostly involved African Americans. It was a way for states to make money and for businesses to get cheap labor after slavery ended in 1865.

Companies like the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company used this system. The companies that leased the prisoners were supposed to feed, clothe, and house them. Louisiana started leasing convicts as early as 1844. After the American Civil War, the system grew across the South. By 1898, about 73% of Alabama's state money came from convict leasing.

Historians say that in the South, states completely gave up control of prisoners to private companies. This led to a very harsh and unfair labor system. Most of the leased convicts were African-American men. They were often arrested for small reasons or given unfair sentences.

Writer Douglas A. Blackmon called it a form of slavery. He said that free men, even if innocent, were forced to work without pay. They could be bought and sold, and were made to obey white masters through force.

Companies like U.S. Steel have admitted to using this labor. The system was most common around 1880. Alabama was the last state to officially stop it in 1928. However, it continued in different ways until President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended it in 1941.

How Convict Leasing Started

Convict leasing became common in the South after the American Civil War (1865–1877). After slavery ended, farmers and business owners needed new workers. Some Southern states passed "Black Codes". These laws limited the freedom of Black people and forced them to work for white employers. For example, some states made it illegal for a Black man to change jobs without his employer's permission.

If Black people were found without a job (called "vagrancy"), they could be put in prison. They also received sentences for many small offenses. States then leased these prisoners to plantations and other businesses. This gave states money when they were struggling financially. Businesses made money by using forced labor that cost less than regular workers.

The justice system often worked with private businesses to arrest, convict, and lease Black people as prison workers. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ended slavery, but it allowed forced labor as punishment for a crime. This was the legal reason used for convict leasing.

A criminologist named Thorsten Sellin wrote that the main goal of convict leasing was profit. Both the companies and the government made money from it. This system spread widely. It provided workers for farms, railroads, mines, and logging companies across the South.

Convict Leasing in Different States

In Georgia, convict leasing began in April 1868. The state leased prisoners to William Fort to work on the Georgia and Alabama Railroad. The contract was for "one hundred able bodied and healthy Negro convicts" for $2500. Georgia ended its convict lease system in 1908.

Tennessee stopped its convict leasing system on January 1, 1894. This happened because of a conflict called the Coal Creek War in 1891. During this time, free miners attacked prisons and freed hundreds of Black convicts. This event caused a lot of public anger.

Even after convict leasing ended, forced labor continued. Tennessee built a new prison, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, with a coal mine on site. Prisoners worked in this mine, which made a lot of money for the state. These prison mines closed in 1966.

Texas started convict leasing by 1883 and officially ended it in 1910. A cemetery believed to hold the remains of 95 "slave convicts" was found in Sugar Land, Texas in 2018.

Frederick Douglass said that the convict lease system and Lynch Law were "twin infamies." He believed they were both terrible results of unfair laws against Black people.

Alabama began convict leasing in 1846 and was the last state to outlaw it in 1928. The money from convict leasing was huge for Alabama. It made up about 10% of state money in 1883, and nearly 73% by 1898. A movement to end convict leasing in Alabama began in 1915. Governor Bibb Graves promised to end it, and it finally stopped by June 1928.

This profitable system encouraged states and counties to convict African Americans. This caused the prison population in the South to become mostly African-American after the Civil War. In Tennessee, African Americans were 33% of the main prison population in 1865. By 1867, they were 58.3%, and by 1879, it reached 67%.

Prison populations also grew overall in the South. In Georgia, prison numbers increased tenfold between 1868 and 1908. In North Carolina, the prison population went from 121 in 1870 to 1,302 in 1890. In Florida, it went from 125 in 1881 to 1,071 in 1904. In Mississippi, the population quadrupled between 1871 and 1879. In Alabama, it went from 374 in 1869 to 1,878 in 1903.

In Florida, convicts, often African American, were sent to work in turpentine factories and lumber camps. The convict labor system in Florida was known for being very harsh. Florida was one of the last states to end convict leasing, in 1923.

How Convict Leasing Ended

By the early 1900s, more people started to oppose the convict leasing system. However, politicians resisted ending it. In states that used the system, the money earned was almost four times the cost of running the prisons. It was very profitable for both governments and businesses. But there were also many problems with the system.

Some people believe the system ended because the terrible treatment of convicts became known. Others point to new laws or political reasons. Even though convict leasing officially ended, other forms of forced prison labor continued. These included work on plantations, in industrial prisons, and the well-known "chain gang" system.

The convict lease system slowly faded away in the early 20th century due to bad publicity and other reasons. A famous case that brought negative attention was that of Martin Tabert. He was a young white man from North Dakota. He was arrested in Florida for being on a train without a ticket. He was fined $25. His parents sent money for the fine and his trip home, but the money disappeared.

Tabert was then leased to the Putnam Lumber Company. There, he was whipped to death by a boss named Thomas Walter Higginbotham. The New York World newspaper reported on Tabert's killing in 1924 and won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Governor Cary A. Hardee ended convict leasing in Florida in 1923, partly because of the Tabert case and the public outcry.

North Carolina did not have a system as widespread as other states, but it did not ban the practice until 1933. Alabama was the last state to officially end convict leasing in 1928. However, many counties in the South continued the practice for several more years.

Images for kids

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  Laboring convicts at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman in 1911. When Mississippi ended convict leasing in 1906, all prisoners were sent to Parchman.

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  Orphaned and "Criminal" Children. 1903