Todd, William Andrew
Description
Encyclopedia article about convict leasing in Georgia. During the antebellum period, Georgia and the rest of the South relied heavily on slave labor for farming and jobs that required hard labor. But with emancipation and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery as an institution and a form of labor became illegal. After the Civil War (1861-65), landowners had a difficult time finding, and controlling, a labor force. Some Georgians saw the prisoners at the state's penitentiary in Milledgeville as the solution to their problems--a workforce that could be firmly controlled. Georgia leaders were also concerned about the costs associated with operating a penitentiary, as the prison population increased and included many more African Americans. In an effort to resolve these issues, officials during Reconstruction (1867-76) approved the leasing of prisoners to private citizens.
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![[African American men, prisoners, with two mules working on roadbed(?) between electrical and telephone poles in Georgia]](https://d2l9jrtx1kk04i.cloudfront.net/d93f3654bed66163a46b26a9576cfaa0e4ae5d0b.png "[African American men, prisoners, with two mules working on roadbed(?) between electrical and telephone poles in Georgia]")
