AMERICA'S CHAIN GANGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMERICA'S CHAIN GANGS

Inquiries Reveal Shocking Conditions WOMAN WRITER TELLS OF CONVICTS WHO DIED

By MYRA PAGE

(Copyright Reserved)

Q.OVERNOE TALMADGE, of Georgia, speaking before the congress of the American Prison Association in Atlanta recently, discussed the chain gang. Men prefer it to the penitentiary, he said, because it provides them with a change of scene and the chance to see persons from the outside world. The "prison camp, or chain gang, is the most humane way to keep prisoners," he added. But the prisoners seem to differ with Georgia's Chief Executive. Not long ago the press published an obscure item about the extradition from New York of a fugitive from the Georgia chain gang. The prisoner, Simon Minor, is reported to have knelt on the stone floor of his cell and prayed, "Please, God, strike me down before they take me back."

Georgia chain gang in "Georeis Nigger," and Walter Wilson's "Forced Labour in the United States," as well as the first-hand report of a convict; given in liobert Burns' "I- Was a Fugi. tive From the Chain Gang," show that the chain-gang system is bound up with some of the most inhuman " practice ever visited by man on man. In North Carolina, where the whip, ping post and chains were abolished a few years ago by a people shocked by their cruelty, we learn that the < methods now used include chaining men by their wrists and ankles to the iron bars of their cell and leaving them in this position for days at a time, their only food a little bread and just enough water. Woodrow Wilson Shropshire and James Barnes, two Negro prisoners in the highway convict camp of Mecklenburg County, were punished for reputed insolence to a guard by being chained nine days and nights to the iron door of their cell. They were denied all food except "a half-biscuit whittled out oil the inside" and a little water. Al. though it was January and the temperature below zero, there was no heat in the cell. Their feet, chained to the icy floor, gradually froze. Finally gan. grene set in. For eighteen days the men received no real medical attention. When they were removed at . last to Central Prison hospital, their condition was so serious that both feet of each man had to be amputated. Shackled for Days Other prisoners, white as well at coloured, testified to having been simi. larly shackled for many hours and even days at a time. For the negroes it w« always worse. As one white prisoner remarked, "We used to hear their cries and pleas, and we'd say among our. selves, 'Our Lord Jesus had an easy time compared to these poor niggers.'" Another negro prisoner, L. Bogan, died under torture. Bogan's family had been notified that he had "died of natural causes" while on the road gang, but a former white prisoner came for. ward to testify that the negro had died in agony while being punished in "solitary," chained to the door of hig cell.. His body had to be pried loose from its shackles with hammer and cold chisels. Other prisoners confirmed this. Yet the county doctor had written out a certificate of "death from acute dila. tion of the heart." Very likely poor. Bogan did die of acute dilation of the heart —but hardly from natural causes. Swaringen, another former prisoner, unburdened his conscience of an ugly secret which he had harboured for sev« eral years. In 1927, while on the rang, he had witnessed the flogging to death of a negro prisoner by the name (J

Most of those who read this will think the hapless man -was overwrought. But in the Southern States there are many who would understand all too well the desperate sincerity in Simon Minor's plea. A quick, painless death would be easier than rejoining that voiceless multitude of the South's miserables, whose convict-striped backs are bent ten to fourteen hours a day at unpaid hard-driven labour, quarrying rock and laying roads, and whose nights are passed in a cage on wheels, resembling a huge circus waggon with latticed iron bars.

Iron Calls Often Spiked Frequently floggings or the "sweatbox," "stretching," and other forms of torture are their common lot. The term "chain gang" is a literal description of their plight. Iron cuffs fastened about the ankles of each prisoner are often spiked and usually chained to the iron cuffs of some twenty other men. A conspiracy of silence ordinarily surrounds the South's "original" method of very profitable convict labour. But lately this has been broken by two public scandals, resulting in legislative investigations in North Carolina and Georgia. It is worth noting here that the following procedure has grown so customary that

it is in danger of becoming another old Southern custom. Recurrent public scandals, usually over the accidentally-discovered death from flogging or other torture of a prisoner, lead to a State investigation. Conditions are revealed that shock all sense of public decency; one or two chain-gang officials are charged with being responsible and are removed. Perhaps a law is passed substituting the sweat-box torture for flogging of prisoners—and the public goes back to sleep, while the chain-gang system itself, which inevitably breeds exploitation, torture and death, is left intact. Invariably the legislative commissions conclude, as did.the last two, that the almost unbelievable conditions and practices uncovered are only extreme cases, resulting from the wanton acts of some sadistic overseer or guard. But the succession of public scandals followed by investigations in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia and other States during the last decade prove how tragically typical these conditions are.

Carter, and had been forced to help in the secret disposal of the body. As a result of these revelations, o* prison officials were indicted, but they were soon released and all charges against them dropped, as the State concluded that there was "practically no evidence to connect them with the alleged mistreatments." - , So once again the South's system 01 convict forced labour, after outraging the nostrils of all decent people, wsj treated with a little disinfectant ana allowed to continue on its course. Commissions Accomplish Little Likewise the recent investigation lfl Georgia, conducted by a commission ot the State's legislative members, accomplished little more than the airing or terrible conditions. The commission» report states that the conditions described in Robert E.. Burns' "I wa» a Fugitive from the Chain Gang art "mild compared to conditions found m some camps." But there is a strong accent on the "some." , The official statement released to tne press also admitted that "conditions are very deplorable," but again W. "some camps." The implications were that the Georgia chain gang is no#' what Burns and John Spivak showed l# to bo—deplorable in all camps. The commission found that in Heard County, "steel collars attached wita chains running to steel anklets were used on convicts, and in some instances spikes were affixed to the ankles o prisoners." These spikes give rise a troublesome disease known a» "shackle poison." Extremely »n sa """ tary conditions were discovered* Healthy men were chained in tne' bunks at night next to men ill wiv tuberculosis.

Various studies, such as John Spivak's well-known exposure of the

In the Sweat Box All used the same wash-basins, towels and eating utensils. Spread disease was almost inevitable. " u « r were placing convicts in stocks, flogging them, stretching them bouna under a blistering sun, and leaving them in this state for hours at a timeNevertheless, tho Georgia commissi found itself able to report that co ditions in Georgia's chain gangs - , "fairly good." Records show that the most common reasons for punishment are the bin charges of "not working' and ta back" to a guard A man i may . ill to stand, but he is punished for n working" by being placed in sweat-box—ran upright wooden . just large enough to enca.sei a vith no air except what m „ through one hole the size o crown „ n nr » . The box is placed in the by hot metal plate is placed be " eat^ coin eB. the nearly smothered ma r ? j ng by drenrhed in perspiration. hands and feet in primrfci < b another method of 'enforcing • line. . S