The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-28
CON VIC'TS.
Lease System
Of South
A TERRIBLE EVIL.
Mrs. Frederick Douglass
Talks About Her Work.

| is willing to speak of it, / will l
found that the people of the north
knew nothing of it, and 1 said, They
shall know something of it, 1t is to tell
them of it that am here"
The speaker was Mrs Frederick
Douglass, the widow of the disting-
uished colored statesman and orator
Mrs. Douglass arrived in Worcester
yesterday afternoon and was seen in
the evening by Spy reporter at the
house of A. Swan Brown, where she
will remain until Tuesday. Mrs. Doug
lass is an old friend of the Swan
Browns, for when Mr.. Douglass first
came to the north, q young man of TO-
he visited a. Swan Browns grand
father In Hubbardston, and during the
80 years that have INTERVIEWED the in
timacy between the two families has
never been broken.
Mrs. Douglass came from Boston,
where she has been making addresses.
After leaving Worcester she may
stop over in New Jersey before speak
ing in Portland, Me, on the 18th of next
month. Her home Is in AnacoStia q
suburb of Washington, d. c., where Mr..
Douglass resided for 19 years before
his death.
Mrs. Douglass is to give an address
Monday evening in Main Street Baptist
Church, on the subject of the Convict
lease system in the SOUTH This is the
cause that has brought her north. Her
desire is to arouse public sentiment
| against the perniciouS system, and to
| aid in bringing about an investigation
| She speaks with the greatest earnest
mes of the cause. Although herself
| white, Mrs. Douglass feels keenly the
| hard lot Of the colored man and woman
| in the south, and last night she spoke
lfreely of the convict system in use in
| the south and of the effect of the
prejudices against the colored man that
are common among the white people of
| the south
When asked why the convict lease
| system was so dangerous to the well
fare of the state, Mrs Douglass re-
/ Piled Because it adds 50 heavily to
Il the number of criminals in the coun-
! try. Prof. Boies of the University of
Pennsylvania, very high authority,
says that the south, with less than one
tenth OF the population of the country.
has produced one-third of the criminals
! Of the country. He further says that
no successful Elimination of the crimi-
nal class is possible so long as the con-
vict lease system is in existence"
How did this system first come into
being?"
ut had its origin in the days i'm
mediately following the war of the re-
| bellion, owing partly to the lack of ia
/ cilities for housing the criminals and
I partly to the fact that it placed the
! whites in possession of a certain
| amount of forced labor thus making
good to them in certain respects and
! with certain limitations the loss of
| their slaves. Kentucky was the only
1 state that had it before the war. Dur
/ ing the war several of the states lost
| their penitentiaries. Thus the Alabama
penitentiarY was leased; the Georgia
/ penitentiary was destroyed; Florida
! had to use an old penitentiary as an
/ arsenal.
After the war the various states
| adopted the convict lease system in
! rapid ccession-Louisiana in 1868
| Georgia in 1859 Mississippi, Tennessee
| and Texas in 1870 North Carolina and
| Florida in 1871, Arkansas in 1873, Ala
| bama in 1875 and South Carolina in
| 1871 The system enabled the white
men to put a great number of convicts
into any greatwork they might have on
| hand it is the coINgA S who have grad
| ed and built the railroads Of the south"
Are these convicts colored or
white?' the reporter asked.
| Both, but the majority are colored
In Mississippi, in 1898, 81 per cent of
| the conyicts were colored; in Florida
| over 80 percent are colored. Wherever
| the lease system prevails, the terrible
chain gang goes. 1t is so easy to put
J colored men in the chain gang They
| have thee hahn gang today in Georgia
and Florida, although | believe it has
! been abolished in Louisiana.
| what is the convict lease system?
| IT'S observation-disclosures what it is
The men who lease or hire
out the convicts have but one
| thought-to make all the money posi-
| bic out of them. The inhumanity of
the thing never crosses their minds.
The guards are a very vicious set, who
| visit all the cruelties possible upon the
unfortunate men under them. They
carry Winchesters and bayonets and
use them on the conyicts. They also
luse bloodhounds Wherever brute
strength can be utilized, as in the build
| ing of railroads or the working of
mines, they are put to work, but they
are not allowed to learn trades. 1t
would be considered wrong to the cit
wrong to the mechanics to allow them
to learn trades.
MANY of the convicts die in servi-
tude If a man survives the life, he
comes out of it physical and moral
wreck Without a cent in his pocket,
or a crust of bread, or home to go to
or any work or any trade to work at
what is he to do? If he steals a loaf
of bread, he is likely to be sent back
| to the chain gang. ConVicts are often
kept years after their crimes have been
expiated.
But the most dangerous factor in the
| southern convict system is that it aetu-
ally breeds crime
THE whole system is one TO degrade
utterly 1t ruins the physical and de-
| grades the moral, nature The custom
holds of convicting children and plac-
ing them in the ranks with hardened
criminals.
1.-THE convict lease system is a phys
! ical manifestation of the utter disre-
gard of the object of all penal lnstitu-
TONS which is to reform the criminal
1t simply treats him with 4 cruelty
equal to that which he endured in
slavery. Gradually high state officials
| have become implicated in it, and the
system has become identified with the
political machinery, so that it has re-
sisted reform and defied public senti-
ment Some of the states have as
sumed control of it. but this does not
always indicate an improved treatment
of the convicts."
Questioned as to the administration
of justice in the south. Mrs. Douglass
replied, Toward the black there is no
Justice. The ballot? o, the white people
colored ballots. AS for the negro, some
| people assert that he is retrograding in
! some respects. Certain it is, he is be-
ing virtually disfranchised by the
south The condition of the negro is
becoming more and more difficult; his
rights as a citizen are being invaded.
In South Carolina, Louisiana and Mis-
sissippi he has been deprived of the
ballot, and this in spite Of the 18th
amendment to the constitution.
"Souht CaRolina looked for federal re-