The Mineral argus., 1885-04-09
SOUTHERN CONVICT yYsrEMa

Laws Made Only Tor Negroes.
"The Shooting Of Penitentiary Con-
victs," was the heading of a dispatch
in q newspaper which read on last
Friday, and which gave the details Of
the shooting of three hired convicts.
who were at work in the Coal creek
mines in East Tennessee, writes an
indianapolis correspondent of The Gin
cinnati Enquirer. To-day read an.
other paragraph which stated that the
convicts in Arkansas are hired out to
farmers at s. per month. Within the
past ten years, and often during that
time, I have had opportunities to see
every phrase of the system Of leasing
convict labor in various states, but
have given special attention to those
states which allow the cOnvicts to be
worked out of doors. What l shall
write on this subject will be unvar-
nished facts, and will try to make
them SO distinct that no one can dis
pute one statement which will make.
The states which know lease their
convict labor to be worked outside of
the penitentiaries are Arkansas, Tex.
as, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and
Kentucky. Most Of the states lease
their prison labor, but in the north the
convicts are worked within the prison
walls; the tasks are regulated by the
state, through it, own officers; the
state feeds the convicts, treats them
when sick, attend to their sanitary
condition, has them bathed and their
clothing properly washed and mended.
I shall not make comparisOns, they
are unnecessary, for the intelligent
reader can do that when he has the
facts. I only want to call atten.
ton at the outset to the fact that the
constitutions of all the states, follow.
ing the eighth amendment to the
national constitution, provide that
.excessive bail shall not be required.
nor excessive fines imposed. nor cruel
and unusual punishments inflicted.
1t NAV be that I do not know what
constitutes 'scruel and unusual pun
ishments," SO that those who read the
facts will have to be their own judges.
During the years 1876, 1876, and
1877 the convicts Of the state OF Ar
kansas were leased to Mr.. Zeb Ward,
of Kentucky. Mr.. Ward had been a
prisOn-labOr contractor in Tennessee
when first knew him. His lease Of
the pcnitentiary of Arkansas and OF
the convicts was for the term of ten
years. One of the conditions OF the
lease was that Mr.. Ward should not be
hampered with the presence of q ward.
en- or any state officer who could stand
between the cupidity or passionate
cruelty of the lessee. During the term
for which tho persons were sentenced
the state had no control whatever over
the criminals. The contractor fed,
clothed, and cared for them as he saw
; fit. About 1875, perhaps 1876, MI
Ward found that he could not work
all the convicts in and about the peni.
Tertiary. SO he opened large cotton
plantation and penal farm up the Ar
Kansas river, and in what IL known a
the river bottoms. There the soil Il
very rich, but the malaria Is general
: and II not fatal. produced the result
which was fatal in the end. visited
this prison farm twice during the sum
mcr of 1877, once ut the invitation o.
Mr.. Ward, and once at the request o.
7 citizens of the little town on the Littl'
!. Rock and Fort Smith railroad. Dur
. ing my first visit saw that the con
victs were fed on cOrn-bread and ia
= meat; that they were huddeled to
: gether in the vilcst, filthiest dens o.
: cabins within q stockade; that they
were not half clothed, and no regart
4 was paid to their sanitary condition
4 and, worse, that there were no bathin,
h facilities within the blockade. Their
\ was not a white prisoner among thu
= three hundred then on this prison
. farm, and do not think there was
. white man in the pcnitentiary at Lit
tie Rock who was subject to the con
= tractor. Several white men, who il
= gcntlemanly bouts had killed othe
!, white men, and who feared lynchin
or assassination il kept in the jails q
!, the counties where the crimes wer
committed, were confined on their Ow
request in the penitentiary until tn
( courts could 60 through the form {
!, releasing them. They, of course, wer
not convicts, and when they felt like
= = came down town and had good tim
y with the special guards who locke
after them. 1t seemed to me that tn
0 criminal laws applied only to negrOt
o except where the crime was hOrs'
9 stealing. This observation applied
3 all the states, in general way. wher
cOnvicts were leased out to cOntra'
), tors, and it appeared to me that til
}. arrest Of negro for any offene
u seemed accepted as proof positiv
. that he was guilty. l gave esPeci'
!. attention to this subject, and M
8 ticed that conviction almost a
!, ways followed arrest. ! do M
Is know that the negro is always a THE
y perhaps he is, which would accOuI
% for his almost universal cOnvictiO
II when charged with a crime. III
C treatment of leased cOnvicts has bee
e discussed through the newspaper