Remembering Suwannee: Convict leasing system, Part 10

Eric Musgrove Contributor This week, we complete our multi-part series on the convict lease system in Florida. Although Section 1 of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution allows "slavery" and "involuntary servitude...as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," the convict camp labor system practiced throughout the United States (north and south) from the 1820s until the 1940s was rife with abuse. The system was profitable to State and local governments, as it provided roughly four times the income that prison administration costs. By the late 1800s, some states had a majority of their incomes coming from leasing out the prison