Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-26
A Substitute fer Slavery.

Later detallS Oh the QlSclOSureS Ill
Alabama show that the first statements
regarding the condition of semi-slavery
in which many negroes of that state are
held, were not exaggerated. The same
horrible condition of things is said to
exist in other parts of the South, but
nowhere as bad as in Alabama. AS the
information is developed, the South it.
SELF is filled with shame and disgust
and the leading papers are calling for
vigorous measures by the courts. At
Montgomery, Ala, no less than forty
grand jury indictments have been made
by the federal grand jury Of men who
have been holding negroes unlawfully
in bondage, and it is confessed by the
Southern papers that the practice is
extensive in many regions of the
South.
Under law existing in a number Of
the Southern states, a person who has
been convicted of an offense and is I'M
able to pay his fine may be put to
work for any other person who Is will
ing to pay it for him. Under the
guise of convictions for petty offenses
and sometimes without trial or con-
viction at all-the negroes are COM
PEELED to sign contracts to work for
given time, and before the Alabama
grand jury there were several cases
where the contract had no limit save
the pleasure of the employer. The
manner In which the system works IS
shown by correspondent of a New
York paper who describes the case of
one Patterson as follows:
Patterson borrowed 81 on Saturday,
promising to pay it the following Tues
day morning. Patterson did not get
to town at the appointed time, and Il
little later he was arrested and carried
before q justice of the peace who found
him guilty of obtaining money under
false pretenses, without giving the
negro an opportunity of getting wit
nesses or a lawyer. A small fine was
assessed. The negro had no money,
nor was he given an opportunity to
get any with which to meet the fine.
He was mt once sold to man named
Hardy for $25, who worked the negro
for about one year, when Hardy sold
the negro to Pace for $40. The negro
worked awhile for Pace, and in trying
to escape cut q boat loose from it's
mornings. Upon his recapture he was
tried and given six months more for
this offense. The negro then entered
into q contract for an additional year
to pay Il doctors bill. In short, for
the 81 originally borrowed, the negro
would not have gotten out until the
year 1906. He was originally arrested
in Coosa county and kidnapped into
Tallapoosa county. where he was
sold"
This is not an extreme or unusual
case. The man Pace gave an inter-
view to the Montgomery Advertiser in
which he admitted that he had bought
q number Of negroes convicted of
petty offenses, paying the constables
an average of $40 each for them, and
getting their marks" to contracts for
terms ranging from sixteen months to
two years. 1t was admitted by Pace.
too. that runaway negroes of this kind
were hunted with bloodhounds and
that they were whipped when their
masters" thought the occasion re-
quircd.
The Alabama papers for the most
part admit the practice of peonage as
testified to in the United States court,
and some of them declare that while
the best sentiment of the state has
hern against it, this best sentiment has
been powerless to bring it to a stop.
'Law-abiding people all over Ala
bama," declares the Montgomery Jour
nal, ARE looking to the federal courts
to do what the state courts have tried
for many years to do and failed
failed because the witnesses were eth
err bulldoZed or were prevented from
tcstifying before the grand juries for
some other unknown reason. Certain
1t il, with full knowledge of the traffic
that has been carried on in certain Sec
tions of Alabama in what is practically
and to all intents and purposes human
slavery, and the cruelties that were
being practiced upon the poor unfortu-
mates, the state courts have been I'M
able, after years of effort, to bring the
culprits to Justice"
The Advertiser of Montgomery calls
for such a reformation of the law with
respect to selling prison labor that in
justices cannot be perpetrated in the
highland fashion of the past. But
SO far as we have observed no Ala
bama paper calls for the outright re-
peal of that relic Of antiquity known
as THE Prison Labor Act" This act
smacks of the British laws under
which small offenders or debtors were
transported to the colonies and sold as
bondsmen to the highest bidder. 1t is
bad enough to contract convict labor to
private employers. In such cases the