Sign in to use this feature.

Years

Between: -

Subjects

remove_circle_outline

Journals

Article Types

Countries / Regions

Search Results (1)

Search Parameters:
Keywords = convict lease system

Order results
Result details
Results per page
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
10 pages, 215 KiB  
Article
“Slaves of the State”: Christianity and Convict Labor in the Postbellum South
by Brad Stoddard
Religions 2020, 11(12), 651; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11120651 - 4 Dec 2020
Viewed by 3814
Abstract
In the wake of the Civil War, southern states incarcerated record numbers of black men and women, closed their prisons, and sent convicted criminals to convict lease camps. Inside these camps, convict laborers worked for businesses, for individual entrepreneurs, on plantations, and on [...] Read more.
In the wake of the Civil War, southern states incarcerated record numbers of black men and women, closed their prisons, and sent convicted criminals to convict lease camps. Inside these camps, convict laborers worked for businesses, for individual entrepreneurs, on plantations, and on public works projects contracted to private businesses. Due to the Thirteenth Amendment’s “slaves of the state” clause, these laborers were legally classified as slaves and treated as such by labor camp operators. Conditions inside these camps were quite harsh, and in most camps, state-sanctioned Protestant socialization efforts were the laborers’ primary source of leisure. This essay provides a preliminary overview of the convergence of Protestant Christianity and convict lease camps as it calls scholars to explore this convergence in greater detail in future scholarship. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Slave Religion: Histories and Horizons)
Back to TopTop