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

Brad Stoddard

doi:10.3390/rel11120651

Abstract

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.

Highlights

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
This crime was one of the many laws that emerged in the wake of the Civil War that did not explicitly mention race or criminalize blackness, but that resulted in the disproportionate arrest and conviction of African Americans
If scholars continue to explore the interplay of Christianity and convict lease systems, their scholarship should look beyond these two states, highlighting points of convergence and difference in the various convict labor camps

Summary

Introduction

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. The fact remains that for almost sixty years after the Civil War, African-Americans and white convicts were legally leased across the south.

Results

Conclusion