A Dark Secret Buried in Money
The history of convict leasing and its disturbing connection to modern prison labor
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Covid was many things to many people. Loss, isolation, uncertainty, grief, stress. But for me, it was a chance to unearth the murky history of convict leasing — a system where prisons lent inmates to private companies for profit. In this article, I want to share with you the disturbingly untold past of convict leasing, a history steeped in economic profit and physical abuse. A past that still impacts America’s prison system today.
Slaves in Everything but the Name
Early on the morning of April 8, 1911, a group of convict minors roused in their bunks. The night brought cool showers, and the dull morning sun cast grey streaks of light onto the floor. The men stood up, having to duck and bend awkwardly as they dressed in worn clothes. The structure they slept in was a cramped box car with thin wooden walls and two layers of bunks.
Dew on the ground, the air still crisp, the convicts began their march to Banner Mine near Jefferson County, Alabama. As they walked the well-beaten path through the trees and into the mud, the men contemplated families long since spoken to and loved ones fading from memory. But these were temporary consolations, as the task ahead was cruel.
Their backs aching from the previous day’s work, hands laced with sores, these men would spend a grueling twelve-hour day lying in cramped coal mine shafts chipping away at dirt walls. On an average day, the Banner Mine, a property of Pratt Consolidated Coal Company, expected the convict miners to extract one to four tons of coal a day — pay depending on whether the worker was free or convicted.
But this was no ordinary day. Shortly after the workers arrived on sight, an explosion rippled through the rocky tunnels. The blast killed 128 people — 111 being Black convicts. These men died quickly, as the explosion caused a rapid spread of afterdamp, where the toxic gasses consumed all oxygen in the shaft. The event was a minor spectacle for the public. And after a few days, the mine returned to business as usual.
