0:00:03.406,0:00:07.980
Convict leasing in the south in [br]this period becomes a new way

0:00:07.980,0:00:15.164
of racial control among white southerners[br]attempting to limit African American

0:00:15.164,0:00:17.875
economic independence and [br]freedom in general.

0:00:17.875,0:00:21.792
And what that means is that [br]state officials would sell

0:00:21.792,0:00:26.305
the labor of an African America [br]prisoner to a private contractor.

0:00:26.837,0:00:31.255
The terms of that agreement [br]usually involved a period of time,

0:00:31.255,0:00:36.305
say ten days for a very [br]minor sentence to up to a year.

0:00:36.890,0:00:42.841
And in exchange for getting the labor[br]of the prisoner and taking full custody

0:00:42.841,0:00:47.343
of the prisoner by the private contractor,[br]the state would receive revenue.

0:00:48.101,0:00:52.444
What that meant in terms of what[br]convict leasing involved was that

0:00:52.444,0:00:56.149
African Americans would work in any[br]industry, whether working for

0:00:56.149,0:01:01.268
a private farmer, whether it was in[br]a brick making factory, a coal mine,

0:01:01.268,0:01:05.759
any number of business concerns and[br]the business owner would have

0:01:05.759,0:01:10.294
absolute dominion over the Black person[br]for the period of time of the lease.

0:01:10.596,0:01:13.133
But once you were in the system,[br]you could spend the rest of

0:01:13.133,0:01:17.557
your life there and that was a direct[br]consequence of the reality of being

0:01:17.557,0:01:21.532
a convict lease and having to fight[br]literally to survive day by day

0:01:21.532,0:01:23.978
in incredibly brutal conditions.