Prison Investigations as Civil Rights Enforcement after Emancipation

• In Event: Race, State, and Power in Comparative and Historical Perspective

Abstract

After Emancipation, 10 of the former Confederate states established racialized convict leasing regimes to blunt the promise of freedom. Black prisoners were leased out to private companies that would assume responsibility for all maintenance expenses, including housing, guards, food, clothing, and tools, related to the prisoners. In exchange for a small fee to the state, complete authority for the work and punishment of the prisoners was abdicated to the lessee. As a result, the system had numerous abuses. Opponents of the convict lease system organized amongst themselves and turned to the federal government for assistance. During a time of limited federal enforcement as it pertained to civil rights—this paper explores how the federal government utilized investigations as a way to limit the power and then to end the convict lease system in Tennessee and Alabama.

Author

• Megan Ming Francis, University of Washington