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Convict leasing in the south in
this period becomes a new way
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of racial control among white southerners
attempting to limit African American
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economic independence and
freedom in general.
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And what that means is that
state officials would sell
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the labor of an African America
prisoner to a private contractor.
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The terms of that agreement
usually involved a period of time,
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say ten days for a very
minor sentence to up to a year.
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And in exchange for getting the labor
of the prisoner and taking full custody
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of the prisoner by the private contractor,
the state would receive revenue.
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What that meant in terms of what
convict leasing involved was that
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African Americans would work in any
industry, whether working for
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a private farmer, whether it was in
a brick making factory, a coal mine,
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any number of business concerns and
the business owner would have
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absolute dominion over the Black person
for the period of time of the lease.
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But once you were in the system,
you could spend the rest of
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your life there and that was a direct
consequence of the reality of being
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a convict lease and having to fight
literally to survive day by day
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in incredibly brutal conditions.