AN INHUMAN LAW.
Great indignation has been aroused by recent exposures of atrocities committed in Florida under the existing peonage law, by which men convicted of petty offences are sold, as slaves, to various industrial companies aud made to work out their sentences. In an Instance, now under investigation, a boy convicted of stealing a ride on a train, valued at four shillings, was leased out to a company which employed a "whipping boss," notorious for his brutality. When the lad, like Oliver Twist, made some minor complaint, ho was given 9*3 lashes with a strap weighing 711b, from the effects of which he died. This will probably pat an end to Florida's Inhuman law, which some years ago had its counterpart in other States, where men convicted of vagrancy or petty larceny were frequently auctioned off publicly, the scenes vividly recalling slavery days in the old South.
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Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 19
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148AN INHUMAN LAW. Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 19
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