Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-16
HELD SLAVES IN
CONVICT CAMPS
PRISONERS SUBMITTED TO
BRUTAL TORTURE
Conditions in South Compared with
Ugly Revelations Recently Made
as to Abuses in Northern
Penitentiaries

The following letter is furnished by the
Prison Reform league, which is investigat-
ing the treatment Of criminals, not only IN
this state but throughout the country;
"They told tales that would have
brought tears from Judge Jeffries,' is
the expression used by Richard Barry
in his article on Slavery in the south
Today in the Cosmopolitan for March,
1907. The editor prefaces the article
with these words: "In a new and SIMS
ter guise slavery has again reared its
hideous head, a monster suddenly
emerging from the Shiny, sordid depths
of an inferno peopled by brutes and
taskmasters in human semblance.
Whites and blacks are today being
held Unfortunately as chattel slaves
and the manacle, lash, bloodhound and
bullet are teaching them submission
without Partially to color Like Il
galvanic shock 1t undermines our
self-importance to find that the new
form of slavery places white and black
on plane of perfect equality and en-
slaves both with generous disregard Of
ancestry or complexion. The
constitution of the United States pro-
hfbits slavery; every state constitution
does the same; but now at this very
hour an atrocious, bloodthirsty system
of chattel slavery exists in many of our
southern states. The Standard Oil
company, H. M. Flagler's Florida East
Coast Railway company, the turpentine
trust and other trusts have put in
force a system of peonage which Is
actual slavery, and it is done under
the legal sanction of state laws-not
by direct laws, but by subterfuges and
circumventions which nevertheless at
tain the end in view"
Inquiry eentered in the first instance
mainly on Georgia, which, by an act
passed in 1897 and amended August 10,
1903, created a state prison commits
sion empowered to hire out felony con-
victs for a term of five years, individ-
uals and corporations being permitted
to bid for their services and the mini
mum price being placed at SITS per an
mum. Fifteen hundred men were sold
to the highest bidder April /, 1906, for
a term Of five years. The state fur
nfshes guards, and. with cruel irony,
physicians. Prisoners are disposed of
in gangs of not less than twenty-five
or more than fifty.
Misdemeanants are also worked by
many of the counties, and it is stated
that the recorders court alone tries
some 5000 annually, many of whom are
sentenced to the chain gang for the
most trivial offenses. The treatment
litSSO lllSuSllSdilul6llLS receive may Dc
summed UP thus: They work on the
roads from sunrise to sunset, wearing
striped suits and with iron manacles
around their ankles. Guards armed
with rifles and shotguns stand over
them, and there is always a whipping
boss who uses a broad thick strap
more than three feet long and taper
Ing. At night the men sleep on a
straw mattress in a rough bunk, neith-
Is1fw. l1~ 4.
removed. Moreover, they are all bound
to the long chain that is secured at
either end to opposite sides of the
stockade. The hygienic inhumanity OF
such an arrangement can be better
| imagined than described.
Plying the Lash
While the whip is in frequent use
on the roads during the day the whip
pings on the return to camp are much
more severe, the victim being forced
to PROSTATE himself over an inclined
support or being dashed to a barrel.
1t may be remarked under this head
that the constitution of the state of
Georgia expressly prohibits whipping
as punishment, even for what is spe-
Gifted as "crime." But in such cases
as those under consideration constitu-
lions count for nothing
AS most of the prisoners were ne
groes the matter attracted compare
lively little attention, and 1t was not
until Col. Byrd, himself a southerner.
had been appointed to inquire into and
had reported on the conditions pre-
vailing in convict camps that any con-
siderable stir was made.
Col. Byrd appears to have done his
duty most conscientiously. He visited
every private camp in the state and
his reports, especially those dealing
with the stripping, beating and out
raging of women, beggar description.
AS he himself says, it was only when
he came to the private convict camps
that he found 1t necessary to dip his
pen in blood. We quote one of his gen.
eraI criticisms: 1.-THE whole political
machinery of the state and county
stood in with the lessees because the
first money earned by the poor victims
paid the cost of trial and conviction.
Not a dollar of the rental for the con-
victs reached the county treasury till
sheriff, deputy sheriff, county solicit
ors, bailiffs, court clerks, justices of
the peacs, constables and other Off
Gals who aided in putting the convict
in the chain gang were paid their fees
in full" And from numerous news
paper articles we select the following
in the Columbia State: There have
been convict brokers and convict
breakers; there have been graft and
brutality and murder. The evidence
shows that there has been dealing in
human beings for profit and no Amer
lean slaves were ever so cruelty treat
ed. Leopold in the Congo furnishes
the only parallel"
Covers Wide Area
Once set on foot the inquiries spread
to and quickly embraced far larger
field, including almost the entire south
and especially Louisiana, Alabama,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee
and Florida. We are inclined to think
that the worst accounts have come
from the lumber and turpentine camps
of the last named although where all
is unspeakably atrocious it is hard to
award pre-eminence. The whole sub
ject Is admirably covered in an article
entitled "Peonage in the United states
in the Nineteenth Century, an English
magazine of the highest standing. Let
us before passing to further details
give one or two more quotations.
The governor of Kentucky thus sums
up the situation: Possession of the
convicts person is an opportunity for
the state to make money. The amount
to be made is whatever can be wrung
from him, without regard to moral or
mortal consequences. The penitentiary
which shows the largest cash balance