The Reformatory

by Tananarive Due

Men who didn’t hire themselves out for picking got thrown in jail for vagrancy and sent into the woods or fields by the sheriff.

“I don’t b’lieve in ‘evil’ in most ways,” Miz Lottie said. “I believe in the devil, all right, but man don’t need no help from Satan to do what folks call ‘evil.’ Man do evil ev’ry day and call it doin’ their job.