The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States)

by Richard White

The South quite consciously and deliberately turned its judicial system into an engine to generate servile labor, of the most deadly sort. Fee-based governance and pervasive racism gave Southern sheriffs and deputy sheriffs strong incentive to arrest black people for misdemeanors. The fines assessed for misdemeanors, largely property crimes, provided money for the sheriffs, and when poor defendants could not pay the fees, officials obtained the money by leasing out the convicted. The Southern practice of assessing penalties for nonpayment of debts and assigning forced labor if the defendant failed to pay provided similar fees for court officials, and more prisoners for leasing. The system had the added advantage of providing local revenue to keep down taxes.35 Convicts—90 percent of whom would be black as the system endured into the twentieth century—worked on railroads, in the turpentine industry, and in the mines. Employers rented them for less than eight cents a day, supplying them with food and clothing. The conditions were horrific. Convict laborers could not strike, and their presence inhibited strikes by free workers.