The system was born of the southern states' emergent need for free labor at the end of the Civil War. Within a decade of the end of the war, 12 southern states had adopted what became known as the Convict Lease System. This article will primarily focus on the camps in Georgia, with an emphasis on those in Pickens County.
Of the few existing prisons at the time, many had suffered damage from arson during the Civil War and had become too costly to operate. Therefore, in May of 1968, the Provisional Governor of Georgia began the state's convict lease system as a way to save money. By 1869 all of the former prisoners held at Milledgeville were working for the railroad company of Grant, Alexander, and Company. Shortly thereafter reports began coming to Governor Rufus Bullock of the inhumane treatment of the convicts.
Regardless, it was viewed as a highly profitable venture, and by 1876, Georgia decided to engage in long-term leasing of convicts for companies for a term of up to 20 years for the price of $500,000 per contract.
In 1881, in an attempt to improve the quality of life of the prisoners, a law was passed allowing only one employee per camp to administer punishments. In effect, the punishments were just carried out by men who became known as Whipping Bosses.
After the most famous trial of a woman in Pickens County, in which Kate Southern was sentenced to death, Governor Colquitt pardoned Kate and was leased out via convict lease as a servant to the family home of C.B. Howard.
The railroad that passes through Pickens County, from Tate to Jasper, Talking Rock, and Whitestone was built by convict camp labor for the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad between 1880 and 1883. As with other camps, the convicts earned zero pay for their work. As a result, in 1877, the State legislature appointed a special committee tasked with looking into the right of the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad Company to receive the proceeds of the hire of state convicts.
In 1894, the state recommended the use of convict labor for road projects. However, because so many of the felons in the state were already leased out to private companies, only criminals with misdemeanors could be found for lease.
In 1897, the Governor had a survey done of all of the Convict Camps. There were 54 misdemeanor convict camps and 25 felony convict camps. The conditions were atrocious. The inspector discovered that men had been whipped to death and others were routinely imprisoned in sweat-box dungeons.
In 1907, the news of the horrendous treatment of the convicts became mainstream knowledge with books such as Clarissa Keeler's Crime of Crimes: or the Convict Lease System Unmasked was published. Public outrage ensued and Governor Hoke Smith helped to pass legislation that banned the use of Convict Leasing in Georgia.
It was a short-lived victory. The counties across the state shifted their direction toward using chain gangs for labor. Two of the most notorious camps were run by brothers, one of whom was a member of the Georgia Legislature.
An Atlanta newspaper writer said the following of the convict system in Georgia.
"The Georgia dealers in human beings proceed along the same lines as their brothers in Alabama. They watch the courts, pay the fines of every misdemeanor convict, and transport them to his stockade. There is some of this species of slave dealing in nearly every county of the State, but is practiced more frequently in the Southern counties, where the turpentine and lumber camps are located. In that section there are the stockades, the blood-hounds, the whipping post and every adjunct of the slave trade."
In 1908, all of the then 4,400 state convicts were sent to work on public roads. Consequently, the phrase "Bad boys make good roads." became a commonly used adage at the time.
The most famous Pickens County convict camp escapee, Wallace Hughes, broke free from a convict camp near Sharptop Church in 1937. To learn more about him, please click here.
Meanwhile in Pickens County, circa 1938, a marble building, officially named the Prison Home: The Pickens County Works Camp, was built on what is now Camp Road (formerly named Convict Camp). Because of the new space in the building, the former iron cages that held around 60 prisoners (see first photo in blog) were abandoned at this time.
And in the same fashion, convict labor was used to build the Pickens County Courthouse in 1948-1949.
Finally, in May of 1962, the convict camp system was shut down in Pickens County and the prisoners were transferred to Gilmer and Cherokee Counties - thus ending a remnant of legitimized slavery.
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