The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1912-04-13

III tuc IuIp0uuuo SuhhpS anu SoheAoS-
tors stockades by coercion and brute
force. One Of the methods used If q
person desires the services Of laborer
who has broken his contract or been
guilty Of other misdemeanor is to swear
out warrant, take the prisoner before
q justice Of the peace. go surety on his
bail bond, then take the man to his
farm or plantation and compel him to
labor.
Other illegal Methods In Practice.
Sometimes the case is dropped with
the above action, or If It is prosecuted a
ine is paid. The person desiring to hold
the labocer in his service will pay his
fine acd compel him to work out the
fine. One Of the methods used Is to
have a man confess to the commission
of a crime and sign criminal court
contract whereby he undertakes to
work out the fine for the person who
pays 1t. This person is called the con.
fessor. At the July term Of the United
States district court for the southern
district Of Alabama twenty-one tndict.
ments were returned against twenty.
six defendants for holding nine differ
ent persons as poems and slaves. These
indictments are still pending.
In one case man was convicted OF
petty larceny in the state court, fined
$40 and costs, judgment and all
amounting to $43.75. One John Doe. a
stranger. came into court under the
state laws and confessed judgment for
the defendant and paid the fine and
costs. Thereupon the defendant en-
tered into what Is called criminal
contract to work out this amount at Sc
q month. The defendant ran away
after working over month. He was
rearrested on an affidavit by John Doe.
fined one cent and $97.O5 costs.
Then another stranger. Richard Roe,
confessed judgment; another contract
is entered into by which the defendant
in the state court agrees to work four
teen months and fifteen days at the
rate Of SO a month. A little later the
defendant ran away again. was rear,
rested and this time fined $500 and
$112.SO costs. making $412.SO. and sen
fenced to hard labor for more than a
year.
stsa n,boat Case on Alabama River.
There was another case of old fash
ioned slavery where man was work
ing on a steamboat plying up and
down the Alabama river. Three per-
sons took him Off the boat, carried him
to their plantation and forced him to
20 to work. This man refused to work,
was cruelty beaten and whipped and
when he was unable to work was told
to 20. He was afterward arrested on
q charge made by the kidnapers Of car
rying concealed weapons and fined
$53S5 costs. judgment confessed upon
him, and he was taken away into slav'
cry again to work 1t out at SO a
month.
White men, as well as colored men,
have been held In peonage. Indeed,
one Of the poems named In one Of the
indictments above referred to Is a
white man. The Harlan and Gallagher
cases decided at the December term
Of the supreme court. 1910. were cases
in which white men were held as
poems in the lumber camps Of Florida
under "a most atrocious system Of en-
forced labor"
While these state laws making peon,
age possible are made with special
reference to compelling the labor OF
the Negro. they occasionally catch
white men as well, particularly immi'
grants working under contract. as In
the Harlan case, all Of which goes to
show that the liberty Of no man Is
safe as long as the humblest black man
may be held as peon or slave.