Alabama Initiates Convict Leasing: Slavery by Another Name

Alabama Governor Robert Patton authorizes convict leasing, declaring that Black prisoners “should feel the hardship of labor in iron and coal mines” rather than mere confinement. The state begins leasing prisoners to private companies that pay monthly fees while providing minimal food, shelter, and no wages. This system, operational until 1928, makes Alabama the last state to abolish convict leasing and creates catastrophic mortality rates among prisoners working in brutal coal mine conditions.

The convict leasing system exploits the Thirteenth Amendment’s exception allowing involuntary servitude “as punishment for crime.” Private companies including Pratt Coal and Iron, Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad Company (TCI), and Sloss Iron and Steel receive exclusive rights to prisoner labor. By 1888, TCI negotiates a 10-year contract for all able-bodied state prisoners at $9-18.50 per month depending on abilities—payments going to the state, not workers.

The financial incentives prove enormous: by 1883, Alabama derives 10 percent of revenue from convict leasing; by 1898, this reaches 73 percent—nearly $100,000 annually. Companies build prison facilities requiring 10-hour workdays with mandatory quotas. The system creates direct incentives for mass incarceration of African Americans through Black Code enforcement, establishing patterns of prison profiteering that persist in modern private prison contracts and prison labor programs.