In the years following the Civil War and more specifically The Emancipation Proclamation, race relations were very complicated and tumultuous in the Southern United States, and would remain so for decades. There were many factors that delayed the progression of race relations in the South, but the one that is going to be addressed here is the practice of convict leasing. Following the emancipation of the slaves, there were very high incarceration rates among the freedmen, and soon the prisons were filling up. The states needed a way to make room in their prisons and they soon realized that they could lease out their prisoners to projects and constructions sites as a means of making a profit, providing cheap labor, and allowing for more imprisonments. This practice expanded rapidly over the following years, and soon became an integral part of the southern economy.
The increasing prevalence of convict leasing led to a steep rise in the demand for prisoners and in turn to many convictions of African Americans accused of crimes with very little supporting evidence. By analyzing an 1890 convict leasing summary we can shed some light on the stories behind some individual convicts. They were convicted of crimes ranging from perjury to assault with a stick, and although it was only a small sample size the majority of listed convicts were African …show more content…
A whipping boss was a government employ who earned commission from the government based on how well he does his job1, which surprisingly was to repeatedly whip the leased convicts to increase labor efficiency. The whipping boss was also a way for the state and the lessee to shovel the blame away from themselves when they were confronted about the abuse of the convicts. However, when charges were brought up against a whipping boss, which they often were, they were acquitted nearly every time in cases often as serious as whipping convicts to
The increasing prevalence of convict leasing led to a steep rise in the demand for prisoners and in turn to many convictions of African Americans accused of crimes with very little supporting evidence. By analyzing an 1890 convict leasing summary we can shed some light on the stories behind some individual convicts. They were convicted of crimes ranging from perjury to assault with a stick, and although it was only a small sample size the majority of listed convicts were African …show more content…
A whipping boss was a government employ who earned commission from the government based on how well he does his job1, which surprisingly was to repeatedly whip the leased convicts to increase labor efficiency. The whipping boss was also a way for the state and the lessee to shovel the blame away from themselves when they were confronted about the abuse of the convicts. However, when charges were brought up against a whipping boss, which they often were, they were acquitted nearly every time in cases often as serious as whipping convicts to