Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-12-27

soon as they sign the lease, become
substantially the owners of the cons
victs during the time of the lease.
As the convicts are mostly negroes,
the horrible details may be well I'M
derstood. It is a revival of the
horrors of slavery, intensified even,
because men who owned the negroes
were more careful of their property
than those who only hire them.
The Times disclosures that in show
in Georgia male and female eonviets
live together, and that at the last in
vestigation there were twenty-five
illegitimate children. The prisoners
are kept in what are known as con-
vict camps. They are made to labor
like beasts, and are supplied with
hardly food enough to keep life in
them. The unfortunates who try to
escape are run down with blood
hounds. The result of this treatment
is an annual average death rate of
10 per cent. from disease, which is
entered upon the books as '.Died or
lost while trying to escape" As
to the convict camps of Mississippi,
North Carolina and South Carolina,
the Times correspondent says:
In all the sconvict camps" of those
States the prisoners are obliged, UNI
der the lash of cruel keepers, from
the effects of which many of them
die every year, to work in the fields,
in mines, and upon railroads and
highways. No effort is made to pro-
vide them with proper shelter or
food. In the maj ority of cases their
clothes are mass of filthy and foul
smelling rags covered with vermin.
Under the eyes OF armed guards
hired by the lessees because of their
known brutality and strength. they
are worked from daylight sometimes
until far into the night; worked
whether they are sick or well; worked
in all sorts of weather, frequently
without food of any kind; worked
sometimes until they fall down and
die. so dying, they have in more
than one case been left to rot in the
place where they fell.
This IS not fancy picture. 1t is
plain, uncolored statement of facts,
which cannot be successfully contra>
dicted. Those who doubt will find
the proof in the official statistics of
the death rate among convicts in the
South, which have from time to time
been forced into print.
In Alabama the system is equally
horrible, and the death rate among
convicts in that State for the last
ten years has been nearly 600 per
cent. greater than in the Northern
penitentiaries, where the average
death rate is about 1 per cent. The
testimony of DR.. j. B. G4ston, the
president of the Alabama Board of
Health, a Democratic official, is
given, and it more than confirms all
that has been charged against these
horrible places. The convict camp
at the Newcastle coal mines is re-
garded as the best managed camp
in Alabama, and here is what DR..
CASTOR says OF it:
There is particularly to be noted
that the food which is served to the
convicts is of the coarsest descrip-
ton, and that much of it is continus
ally given to them cold. There is
also to be noted the bed space-a
mattress about five feet seven inches
long and three feet long for two
white men, and one foot and q half
of bed space for each colored con-
vict, the revolving, fifty condition of
the mattresses and blankets; the sup,
ply of water and tubs for personal
ablution, two tubs the size of half
barrels for twenty-five white con-
victs, three tubs of the same. size for
more than $50 colored convicts; the
presence in the cells ct night of buck
cts containing the fecal and urinary
excretions of all the convicts; the
very trying change of tenn
perature experienced, particular
ly In winter, on coming from hard
work in a hot mir e in wet clothing
and standing still for an hour or
more in shelter, SO called, which is
only partially and very imperfectly
protected by weatheraboarding; and
at last, the frequent fogging for
failure to perform the daily tasks
If this be the best managed camp
in Alabama, what must the others
be? What must be the cruelties prac-
ticed in them? Was there anything
more horrible in the days of slavery
laws than is here related, under the
administration of Democratic con>
Wet laws7 AS the Times well says,
however, this is question ''above
and beyond all politics and all par
ties" So long as this system con-
tinues it is disgrace to the South,
and to the whole county. It is a
system whose existence cannot be
passed over in silence. It makes
little difference what party sanctions
it or is responsible for it. 1t is a
crying evil and sin against our
common humanity, and every friend
of humanity should join in the de-
mand for its suppression.-Chicago