The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-12-12
A Convict Camp i'm Tennessee.

When the National Conference of Chari-
ties and Correction met in Louisville in the
year 1883. the novelist George w. Cable
was invited to read a paper OH 1.-THE Con-
vict Lease System" The paper which he
prepared in response to this invitation was
one of the most important as we'll as far
reaching in its effects of any that have been
presented within recent years. 1t was in
part the occasion of Mr.. Cables removal
from the South, where it stirred up hor-
nets nest about him. The plain, sorrowful
and painful facts which he gave showed in
clearer light than most people had ever
seen it the horrors of the lease system. The
discussion which followed tended to reform
the worst features of that system; and
though most of the Southern States still
continue this method of employing convicts
the physical condition of the men in many
places has been improved. Texas has given
up the system. and South Carolina has done
the same; while Alabama has modified it,
and allows night schools in several mining
camps. These have been established by
Miss Julia Tutwiler, principal of the State
Normal School of Alabama, a devoted
woman. who believes that these black con.
victs have souls as we'll as bodies. Her
work has met with great opposition from
the people at large. but the State inspectors
of prisons have encouraged it; and the min
ing company which hire the convicts fur
nishes the schOOl-rOOms and pays the teach
erS, according to an agreement with the
State. So far. however, the work is very
primitive, and not more than fifty of the
fifteen hundred cOnvicts have the advantage
of the schools. The rest are too tired, too
ignorant, or too brutal, to avail themselves
OF an opportunity for mental recreation at
night, after being shut up in the bowels of
the earth all day; and no cOmpulSiOn is eX-
erclsed. But, like some other small things,
this has within itself the capacity for
growth; and, though only little has been
done, it is step in the right direction. 1t
is undoubtedly true, as SOutherners claim,
that Northern people cannot conceive the
depth of ignorance and bestiality from which
many OF these cOnvcts are drawn. One
might think that was the reason why more
should be done for them. Certain it is that
the outlook for our beautiful Southland is
very melancholy, if these dark places cannot
be raised to manhood and wOmanhOOd
In Tennessee. the convicts were at first
Immediately after the war. leased under
wise provisions 1t was the best that the
poor, impoverished, bullet-riddled State
could do with the hundreds of criminals
that were suddenly thrown upon her hands,
Her penitentiary. which was one of the first,
and certainly the best, in the South, could
house only handful. compared with the
host that seemed to spring up from the
blood stained soil. But the system there
has in some ways deteriOrated rather than
improved. The cupidity of man has sur
passed his humanity; and. in spite of the
efforts of those who would like to have had
the whole system changed, lease has been
renewed with the Tennessee Coal and Iron
Company for another six years. the COM
pany to house. feed, guard and transport
these convicts, and to pay into the Golfers