Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1879 — Peonage at the South. [ARTICLE]

Peonage at the South.

A cause of the negro exodus not fully understood bv the people erf the North is the penal laws of the Southern States. The exodus thus far has been exclusively from Louisiana and Mississippi, in which States the laws beam hardest on the laborers. Both States have a Lien law the purpose of which is to authorize the mortgaging of property not yet in existence. The effect of this law is to encourage dealings in “futures” by landlords and tenants alike. Speculative gambling is thus legalized and made reputable, and the raising of a crop becomes as risky a business as buying lottery tickets. It is make or break with the negroes. They are gamblers by instinct, and willing to take chances. One bad crop reduces them to bankruptcy and impoverishes the country. The evils of this law have been clearly perceived by the best class of planters at the South. The truth was acknowledged at the Vicksburg Convention, May 5, when the repeal of the Lien laws was recommended in one of the resolutions adopted by a unanimous vote. But there has been a counterinlluence at work, both before and since; the Vicksburg Convention, the object of which has been to make the Lien laws still stricter and the penalties for failure to fulfill the obligations imposed by them more severe. Up to this time only one thing has been wanting to make the virtual re-enslavement of the negroes possible. This one thing was the power to imprison for debt. If the Lien Ifcws were supplemented by a law to enforce the contracts under penalty of line or imprisonment, the negroes would be liable, without any fault o£ their own, to a term of service with a prison-contractor. The Constitutional Convention of Louisiana, it was reported last fall, intended to make changes in, the organio law that would permit legislation of the kind desired by the planters to be adopted. The Convention was chosen with this understanding.- Before it met, however, the exodus began, largely in consequence of the proposod changes and speedily assumed such proportions that when the Convention assembled it did not dare Ao-carry out the original.programmo. It has adhered closely to the old laws in this respect, which are sutlicient to, strip the. negro of nearly all the results *

of hia labor, though he may still retain his personal freedom, if he does not commit an open crime. Tho people of Mississippi have not, it appear*,, taken the lessons of the exodus as well to heart as their neighbor* of Louisiana have\ A letter printed in another eoiumn from a resident of Jackson, Miss., who is everyway trustworthy and well-informed, reveals a design on the part of certain people in that State to re-enslave the negroes. It may bo that this plan was formed before the white men of Mississippi had become alarmed at the exodus; but this is only another reason to justify and explain that remarkable movement of the colored people. Jbe Mississippi plan of re-enslavement, as related by our correspondent, is to force all persons confined in the county jails, before trial, to accept service with a prisoncontractor. It is true the pretense of an option is offered; but the diet of those who refuse to labor is made so miserably poor (consisting of only six ounces of bacon, or ten ounces of beef, and a pound of bread, and water per diem) that there is no choice between the contractor and starvation. The arrangement is completed by estimating the worth of a day’s labor at twentyfive cents, and providing that a prisoner shall work out the cost of feeding and prosecuting him at that rate, while tho cost of a day’s keeping is reckoned at twenty cents. This leaves only a margin of five cents per diem for the convict.' To offset the possible chance of faithful service and an early release on these terms, it is further provided that Sundays shall not be counted to the benefit of the prisoner, and that for every day he is sick he shall work two extra days for the contractor. With this system in vogue it is not difficult to believe'the statement of our correspondent that a prisoner sent to jail for some petty offense or on a frivolous charge will often be compelled to work not l#ss than five and possibly eight or ten years for the contractor. It is a very simple thing in the South to send a negro, guilty or innocent, to jail. A petty offense, such as chicken-stealing, may doom him to labor for five years; and, in the absence of an offense, a frivolous charge will do as well. The infamous penal laws of Mississippi and Louisiana are the product of a variety of causes, among which are class-prejudice, the demand for cheaplabor, and the greed of prison-contract-ors. The most important of these ate perhaps tho last two, which mutually support each other. The planters, by their demand for prison-labor, which is cheaper and more tractable than any other, encourage the prison-contract-ors to use every means in their power to increase the number of convicts. It is within the power of the contractors, who are men of means and political influence, to get such bills as they choose through the Legislature. When men like Colonel Richardson, of Jackson, who is the wealthiest planter in the South, enter into active competition for the sole control of the prison-labor, there is reason to*suppose that there is a good deal of money in it. Colonel Richardson is a humane man, and if he had obtained the contract would doubtless have treated the convicts kindly. But they are now in a far worse condition than that of slavery. THey are worked in gangs, often in chains; sometimes under a broiling sun for twelve hours at a stretch; sometimes up to their waists in water. They are often worked on Sundays, and are alWays compelled to turn out in bad weather, when no other negroes leave their cabins; and they cut wood, mend fences, dig ditches or do other such drudgery ip the rain. Any convict who attempt to escap* can' be shot down by their keepers, and bloodhounds are used to track them as regularly as in the old days they were used to chase slaves. Is it any wonder that, with the prospect of this bondage staring them in the face, so many of the negroes of Mississippi are seeking homes at the North P— Chicago Tribune.