Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-08-08
Negro Prisoners No Longer Leased
Out.
WORK ON FARMS OWNED BY STATE
Whip and Lash of Slave Driver Said
TO Be Felt no More in Louisiana
Story of the Former Cruelty by the
System.

NEW OIl6dLS, LID, aug. iClC
has been revolution in the method of
handling negro convict labor in the
south in recent months. From the old
lease systematic most cruel and bar
barous even known in civilized
country-the majority of states in the
south have taken charge of convict Ia
Dor and by the application of a scien-
tific and intelligent system have
brought the convict negro out of a
thraldom worse than slavery into a
conultion of moral and physical well
being that has never been known in
the history of the southern states.
1t has remained for Louisiana to
bring the system to the highest point
Of perfection yet obtained, and, profit
ing by the experiences and mistakes
of other states, to abolish everything
pertaining to the old iniquitous sys-
TEN and adopt a plan which in the
course of few years is destined not
only to work wonders internally but to
spread it's beneficent results over the
entire south.
From the cruel whip and lash of
the slave driver of the levee camps
under the old system to the humane
superintendent of the guards who
watch them at work in the cotton
fields, the life of the convicts in Louis
lana has been changed and today L.
076 convicts in the state, 80 per cent
of them negroes, are employed in the
tilling of the soil and the cultivation
of cotton, corn, rice, sugar cane, the
raising of cattle, horses, sheep and
shoes, and in other industries which
not only provide raimnent and susie
nance for themselves but yield pro-
fit to the state.
Hardshps of Old System.
1t was under the old convict lease
system just abandoned, that the negro
prisoners Of the state of Louisiana
suffered the most cruel hardships. I'M
mediately after the civil war it was
begun. Eugene Jones, in 1868 obtain
ed by lease from the state 900 convicts
and he used them as he pleased-upon
the levees, on farms, plantations, in
the salt mines. They were under the
direct control of overseers, who were
selected with view to their excessive
harshness, for it was believed at that
time that the negro convict could be
controlled only by brutality The lash
was applied unsparingly. The lessees
and overseers endeavored to get from
them the most labor for the least out
lay.
Not only were they whipped and
beaten pfttimes into insensibility, but
they We're half starved on unwhole-
semeaand disease-breeding food, and
were compelled to sleep in foul and
unsanitary stockades, lacking ventila-
ton and even the primary forms of
sanitation. More often tham not medi-
cal attention was wanting, and when
it was available it was of an unskilled
and practically useless character. Dis
ease and yermin swept the levee
camps, and smallpox year after year
appeared in the most malignant form,
and today nearly all of the older con-
yicts bear the marks of the disease as
well as the scars of brutal treatment.
Annals Reek With Cruelty.
The unpublished annals of the state
reek with almost unbelievable cruelty.
A story is told of the levee camps
which illustrates the atrocities prac.
ticed upon the helpless victims. A
negro by the name of Burton is said
to have been given 200 lashes with
knotted leather thongs. Burtons of.
Tense was that he had pleaded illness
and could not work Another negro
was struck in the head with a lead.
tipped riding whip by mounted
guard. and as he lay upon the ground
was kicked in the abdomen by another
His offense consisted in the accidental
overturning of wheelbarrow of earth
as he trundled it up slippery plank
to the top of the levee embankment
Another negro protested against eat