AP US History in 1 Minute Daily: Convict Lease System (Day 157/309)

Hey APUSHers, let’s chat about the Convict Lease System as part of my series- APUSH in 1 Minute Daily!

Engraving of the 13th Amendment, Zinn Education Project

During Reconstruction, white Southerners utilized a loophole in the 13th Amendment to restore white supremacy. According to the amendment, slavery could be used as a punishment for a crime.

Through Black Codes, thousands of African Americans were arrested for crimes of vagrancy, theft, unemployment, and intoxication. Without enough jails to house the prisoners, the convict lease system developed.

African American Convicts Leased to Build the Railroad, NC, Wikimedia Commons

Private employers would take the convicts to work on railroads, saw mills, coal mines, and cotton fields and promise to feed, clothe, and guard them. This system created immense wealth for both the employer and the state.

Convict Leasing Children, Wikimedia Commons

However, the treatment and conditions were deplorable. Dying from exhaustion, pneumonia, malaria, gunshot wounds, and more, the death rate was up to 25% in some places.

The convict lease system developed as a backlash to gains in civil rights for African Americans during Reconstruction. By arresting African Americans and then leasing their labor to private employers, handsome profits were made while thousands of lives were crushed. 

Join me tomorrow as I explain Exodusters in the next APUSH in 1 Minute Daily!