The St. Johns herald., 1900-01-20
LOCALIZED SLAVERY.
Services of Negroes in the South
 Scld to Farmers
When Guilty of Minor Crimes Their Fines Are Worked Out with Those Who Come Forward
 and Pay Them.

Conditions much like slavery have been brought about among the negroes in this state by the flne-alternative sys- tenn of punishing minor crimes, and the
 grand jury of this (AndeTson) county, in its presentment just made, directs
 attention 10 them.
 A negro is arrested for some OffenSe-
 gambling, fighting, resistance of off
 cers, breach of contract, violation of the
 lien law, selling liquor, or any one of
 dozen other misdemeanors. He is fined | S25 to $50, with the alternative of work
 ing 50 or 90 days, or even six months,
 on the chain gang. Then a white farm
 CT calls and looks him over. If he ap- pears to be an able-bodied farmland, the farmer offers to pay his fine to be worked out" and the negro usually consents. As farm wages are from six
 to eight dollars month and board,
 and in such cases are fixed at the lowest rate, the negro's chances fer working himself out of servitudc in a year or two are slim. He does not dare to vic late his contract. If he has family, he
 cannot get away, and even if he is a single man he cannot go far before he is captured, and breach of contract means another long term on the gang"
 The grand jury in its report says: There are in the county today num- Der of these unfortunates who, under terror of conviction for crimes ranging from the most trivial of wkieh She law takes notice to graver effenses, have bound themselves to landlords for period of service ranging all the way from one year to five or more, having in some instances three CT four years service for the advancement Of a fee of $50 or less. Worse than all, many worthless negro men, who have neg lected their wives and helpless chiI- dren and have got into the clutches of the law, have bound these wives and children to state of servitude to pro- cure the payment of some small fine. We are told that in some instances children scarcely out of their infancy have been thus bound out, sometimes during the whole of their minority, in order to pay a fine of a few dollars, the price of their fathers crimes. Tn other instances these contracts are obtained in order 10 avoid prosecution"
 The presentnert names one lawyer of the local bar, who, it charges, regu- larly visits the county jail and offers his services to friendless negro prison CTS, his fees to be worked out" With the men once bound to him, he can let them out to farmers to work out'' what they owe him, presumably mak- ing profit on the transaction. Nheth- CT convicted or acquitted, the prison CTS are in equally bad case, the term of their servitude depending on the con- science of the landlord. The improyi- dence and ignorance of the negroes makes it easy to hold them indefinitely with small advances of provisions and at tremendous prices, and in terest charges on the money, the sys- tenn expressed in the familiar lines: "Ort's CT ort an fggers CT fgger; All fur de white man; none fur de niS-
 ger"
 The grand jury makes no recom- mendation except to suggest that it would be more merciful to punish of lenders with an absolute sentence of imprisonment or labor on "the gang.' that they might serve out and be done Tlth.-Anderson (S. e. Cor. N. Y. Times.