The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1942-12-05
COLORED BOYS.
Cite SLAVE
CONDITIONS
Wages Were Cheap, And
Boss Beat Negro
Workers
BY LARRY CHISM

l NUdISe Ol NiOldAllls MS PlOOdNlOil
told a Michigan Chronicle reporter
this week how he had been paid
slave wages on the large farm Of a
I southern white man near Pratts-
Vile, Ala.
Earned $50 Per Day
Isiah Owens, whose young wife
and small boy now live on Warren
avenue told of brutal beatings given
men who we're often late TO work in
the fields of farm owned by Dave
Yarvey. white farmer in Alabama.
We worked from sun up to sun
down"
How much. money did you get
for the days work." he was asked
Il got sixty cents day" Owens
answered, telling how he had work.
ed for .wo years on the farm of
white man. Ed Rogers
Explaining how he happened to
ger into trouble, Owens said:
Il ploughed for Ed Rogers and
took care OF the hogs, chickens. and
MIXED the cows, working from sun
up to sun down"
Took Fertilizer
( al started to work for him in 1888
up to 1885. for sixty cents day. I
One cay | took four hundred
pounds of soda TO my place to
! sprinkle around my corn patch.
The next day Ed Rogers came
over and told me to take the soda
back and he wouldn't prosecute me.
| Did you intend TO steal the
Soda" he was asked.
No. I Just took it and intended
to tell MIN about il later. l wanted
TO make my corn grow.
Sent to jail for 6 Years
so | took the soda back 10 his
house. Then few days later they
arrested NE. l was sent to jail for
six years.
Il served two years and two
weeks. then another white man. a
farmer, got me paroled and prom
ised to pay me one dollar a day to
plough and work for him
That was on April 10. 1912.
worked for him bur he didn't pay
me but seventy-five cents a day.
That was when my wife came
down to be with me"
White Boss Threatens His Wife
Owens then related how the
white farmer had attempted to get
his wife to work for him hoeing
corn and cotton.
But Mary Lean was i'll and
couldn't work. he replied.
Then one day my wife came run
ming out to the field where l was
working and told me Yarvey was
trying to make her work for him
and had a stick and was going to
beat her if she didn't 60 to work.
Il asked him what he was trying
to do. And he said; She'll have TO
work or leave"
Sends Mate To Detroit
Owens then said that he sent his
wife back 10 Detroit and that he
followed her here about three
weeks later
Attempting to clear himself with
his parole board and his draft
board, Owens communicated with
them and as result was arrested
as a fugitive from Alabama.
Represented by Attorney Charles
Roxborough, Owens will be given
a hearing in Circuit Court on Dec.
3, pending extradition to Alabama
to serve four more years for taking
approximately nine dollars worth
of fertilizer from his white farmer
boss,
Workers Beaten II Late For Work
u Telling of treatment on some
farms in the south, Owens said
III you are late getting TO work.
the boss comes by the house to see
why. He'll tell you 10 go on to work
out IN the field and you think
everything is all right
Then after you &c out in the
g. field, he and his son come by. make
; you come over to them. The son
will hold gun on you while the
old man takes a stick about as big
as your thumb and beats you, then
} says:
! Called Niggers
I Niger. | know you won't be