“Slaves of the State”: Christianity and Convict Labor in the Postbellum South

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 p...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Stoddard, Brad (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: MDPI [2020]
Dans: Religions
Année: 2020, Volume: 11, Numéro: 12
Sujets non-standardisés:B Slavery
B slave religion
B Black religion
B African American religion
B convict lease system
B Religion
B The South
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Résumé: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.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contient:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel11120651