USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 46
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In the constitutional convention of 1865 it was proposed to punish the crimes of grand larceny, robbery, rape, arson and bur- glary, by hanging, because there was no punishment except con- finement in the penitentiary and there was no such institution in existence. Mr. Hudson, of Yazoo, declared that the country was terrorized by bands of outlaws, even cotton was stolen on the way to market. But the majority of the convention approved the at- titude of Amos R. Johnston, that such bloody legislation would not remedy the condition. The legislature of 1865 appropriated $30,000 for repairing the penitentiary. Capt. A. J. Herod, State architect, reported in October, 1866, that the building was suffi- ciently repaired for comfortable use. There were then 131 inmates, who were being worked in a brickyard, and in the rebuilding. It was estimated that $65,000 more was needed for complete re- pairs.
Gov. Humphreys, in his message of October, 1865, noting the in- creasing number of inmates of the penitentiary, inability to find all employment in confinement, and the increasing expenses of supporting them, said, "Some relief may be found by re-adjusting the criminal laws so as to limit the punishment in the penitentiary to certain classes of crimes and authorizing punitive labor for minor offences within the limits of the respective counties." Jan- uary 24, 1867, he reported: "The penitentiary has been leased, under an act of the legislature, to Messrs. J. W. Young & Co., for a term of fourteen years. They have executed a penal bond in the sum of $100,000, for the faithful performance of the stipula- tions of the contract. The State is bound to deliver the convicts at the penitentiary. Some legislation is now needed to en- able the superintendent to comply with the stipulation, as the law defraying the expenses of their transportation was repealed at your last session."
A resolution approved by Gov. Humphreys in February, 1867, authorized the lessees of the penitentiary to work such convicts as were without mechanical skill, and were not sentenced for certain
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heinous crimes, "at any work, public or private, upon railroads or levees, or dirt roads or other works, where the labor used does not require the possession of mechanical skill . and does not conflict with the mechanical skill and labor of the State." It was provided that this working out should be under rules ap- proved by the State superintendent and governor, and no convict should be so worked without his first giving his consent in writing, or employed in any work that might impair health. This arrange- ment was to be in force for three years, and (it appears, in consid- eration therefor) the lessees were required to pay the expenses of removing all convicts to the penitentiary.
Gen. Gillem, while commanding the military district, in 1868, leased the penitentiary to Edmund Richardson. Gov. Alcorn said in his message of March, 1870: "I object to the principle of that contract for the reason that it virtually supersedes the State's con- trol over its convicts ; and, while tending to degrade agricultural labor, abolishes, in effect, the infamy and the penalty attaching in well-ordered society, to crime." Hence he took pleasure in ob- serving that the military lease to Richardson, though it ran to November 1, 1870, could not survive the restoration to civil gov- ernment. He declared that convicts should not be worked outside the walls of the penitentiary. "The shocking spectacle of a group of men followed by keepers with loaded rifles, ready to shoot them as though they were dogs, lowers that sentiment of well-ordered society which surrounds human life with sanctity." But "if we must employ our convicts outside of the penitentiary," the senten- ces for a certain class of crimes should be to labor on public works. The Richardson lease continued, was extended by Alcorn, and the extension confirmed by the legislature until March 1, 1872.
Governor Powers, in 1872, noting this extension said: "The policy of leasing for a period of years the convicts sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary, to be paraded throughout the State and placed in competition with free labor, is calculated, in my judgment, to corrupt public morals, degrade industry, pervert justice and thwart the true objects of punishment." The number of convicts then on hand was 234. Upon his recommendation the legislature provided for the purchase of a farm of 500 acres, and the building of a new penitentiary thereon. Meanwhile, the contrac- ting of prisoners within the old penitentiary was authorized, and employment outside was limited to public works.
Under the Richardson lease the State paid $18,000 a year to the lessee for feeding, clothing and working the convicts, besides bearing the expense of bringing the convicts to the penitentiary, which was about $12,000 a year.
The board of inspectors under the law of 18:2, was B. B. Eggles- ton, R. J. Alcorn and George Charles. The Richardson lease having terminated, they made a contract May 10, 18:2, with W. P. Dunnovant & Co., for employment of convicts; lessee to assume all expense connected with the prison, and to pay the State $8,000 per annum for the use of the convicts and machinery. The work
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outside was to be only on public works. The board selected a site for the new penitentiary, 500 acres about four miles north of Jack- son, in January, 1873, and asked an appropriation to begin work. The site was donated by the city, in competition with a donation by Canton. In 1872 a large number of the convicts were employed outside on public works. Gov. Powers was gratified by the pros- pect of a new penitentiary, on completion of which "the leasing system of working convicts outside the walls will end."
But the panic of 1873 and political opposition stopped this pro- ject. The building of a cotton factory was begun in 1874, with an appropriation by the legislature, in order that employment might be furnished all convicts within the old institution. But the pris- on was so crowded that cell room was lacking; the financial depres- sion made further building inadvisable, and Gov. Ames recom- mended working short term convicts on the roads.
An act of 1875 provided that pending the building of the new penitentiary, the management of the penitentiary might contract for the feeding, clothing, guarding and maintenance of the convicts or any number thereof, and for the labor of the same, and for the use inside the walls of the penitentiary, of the machinery of the penitentiary, the contract to relieve the State of all expense of main- tenance, clothing and guarding, and to continue until January 1, 1880, with permission to work the convicts outside the penitentiary, no restriction being made as to the kind of work. Bond was re- quired of the contractor, and the governor was authorized to cause inspections of the food, clothing and treatment.
At the same time an appropriation of $27,500 was made for en- larging the old penitentiary. In 1875 200 convicts were kept within the walls and 373 leased out.
An act of 1875 also authorized the supervisors of 46 counties to put prisoners and convicts upon public works of the counties. reviving what is known as the "chain-gang," which has existed from the earliest days; also to lease the prisoners to contractors on public works. This was recommended by the Tax-payers con- vention.
After the political revolution of 1875 the plan of a new peniten- tiary was abandoned, and the leasing system was continued under the act of April 15, 1876, under which the penitentiary inspectors leased the convicts, buildings and property, June 9, to J. S. Ham- ilton and J. L. Hebron, the lessees to pay the State $1.10 for each convict over 400 in number, and bear all expenses except the salary of the State superintendent of the penitentiary. The new lessees made arrangements with the old sub-lessees under the act of 1875, French & Forbes, and obtained control of the convicts. "From 1876 to 1884 some changes were made in the management of the penitentiary but not in the interest of the convicts. Commissioners were appointed to offer the entire penitentiary plant, including con- victs, for lease to the highest bidder for cash or on credit, and it was provided that the leasing of convicts to private persons should continue. From the beginning of this infamous system to
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1884, these wretched prisoners seem not to have had one cham- pion, who, for humanity's sake, would lift a voice of protest in their behalf." (J. H. Woods.) In 1880, when the leases authorized in 1875 expired, a board of public works was created, with a mem- ber from each congressional district, the rent value of convicts was put at $50 a year besides his keep, and there was provision for operating a bagging factory and a wagon factory by the board of public works. The board of public works leased the penitentiary and all property pertaining thereto, for six years from January 1, 1881, for $39,420 a year, to Jones S. Hamilton, R. H. Allen and J. A. Hoskins. The laws against mistreatment were made more stringent and the superintendent was required to give greater at- tention to the care of the prisoners. The barbarism of the system continued to arouse public resentment, which culminated in the winter of 1884 when the legislature was in session. A squad of 18 convicts were shipped through Vicksburg from a delta plantation, on their way to the prison hospital at Jackson. Their half-naked bodies showed signs of cruel goaders and tortures, their fingers and toes were frost-bitten and they were hardly able to walk. The city authorities compelled the guard to take them through the city in covered wagons, but a newspaper dared to publish the facts. A committee of the house of representatives of which Jeff Nelson was chairman, investigated the working of convicts on farms and railroads, and showed the brutalities and cruel commercialism of the system. A few newspapers had the courage to print the report before it was stolen from the files. Capt. Frank Johnston, later attorney-general, began a relentless war on the system, for which he was honored in 1890, by privilege of the floor of the constitu- tional convention. In 1886 the convicts were leased to the Gulf & Ship Island railroad, which had already held them under an assigned lease. The legislature of that year seriously considered the problem. There were 800 to 1,000 convicts and the prison at Jackson could not accommodate them. The large number was due to a law defining the stealing of certain domestic animals as felony, regardless of value. The legislature created a Board of Control (q. v.) composed of the railroad commissioners, empowered to protect the convicts, and the superintendent of the penitentiary was required to visit the places where the convicts were worked once every month. But the public was not satisfied with these measures, and the legislature of 1888 was compelled to order an investigation. It appeared that there had been much improvement, but there remained the same tendency to brutal treatment. The only remedy provided was the greater concentration of the con- victs under the management of the Gulf & Ship Island railroad company. A campaign was made before the constitutional con- vention of 1890. Statistics were produced showing that the aver- age terms of imprisonment in western penitentiaries were 3 to 4 years, in Mississippi over 41% years, including boys sentenced for life. The highest death rate in six western prisons was 21/2, the others all being below 112 per cent. The death rate in Missis-
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sippi was 10 to 15 per cent. The average death rate of white convicts was 5 per cent., of negroes 11 per cent. The convention of 1890 submitted the convict question to a committee composed of R. A. Dean, W. S. Featherston, George G. Dillard, J. H. Jones, W. F. Love, J. Alcorn and J. S. Sexton. They reported: "Be it ordained by the people of the State of Mississippi in convention assembled that from and after the 1st day of January, 1895, the system commonly known as the convict or leasing system shall be unlawful, and from and after that date the hiring of State con- victs to individuals or corporations shall cease."
"The leasing system was common to all the Southern States, except Kentucky and probably Virginia. It is difficult to under- stand how a system so barbarous could have been tolerated in any Christian community. It was evidently the product of human rapacity grafted upon the conditions that a defunct slavery had left behind it." (J. H. Jones, M. H. S. Publ. VI, 111.) Under the constitution of 1890 the State Farm system has taken the place of the old penitentiary. See Board of Control and Penitentiary Farms. Pursuant to an act of 1900 the buildings and brick wall of the old penitentiary were torn down to make way for the new capitol.
Penitentiary Farms. The constitution of 1890 requires that "No penitentiary convict shall ever be leased or hired to any per- son or persons, or corporation, private or public or quasi public, or board, after December the 31st, A. D., 1894, save as authorized in the next section, nor shall any previous lease or hiring of con- victs extend beyond that date; and the Legislature shall abandon the system of such leasing or hiring as much sooner than the date mentioned as may be consistent with the economic safety of the State.
"Sec. 224. The Legislature may authorize the employment under State supervision and the proper officers and employes of the State, of convicts on public roads or other public works, or by any levee board on any public levees, under such provisions and restrictions as it may from time to time see fit to impose; but said convicts shall not be let or hired to any contractors under said board, nor shall the working of convicts on the public roads, or public works, or by any levee board ever interfere with the prepar- ation for or the cultivation of any crop which it may be intended shall be cultivated by the said convicts, nor interfere with the good management of the State farm, nor put the State to any expense.
"Sec. 225. The Legislature may place the convicts on a State farm or farms and have them worked thereon under State supervi- sion exclusively, in tilling the soil or manufacturing, or both, and may buy farms for that purpose." See Board of Control.
The convention adopted an ordinance requiring the governor to appoint a commission to report on the subject of a convict farm. This commission, Ira G. Holloway, of Lafayette county, M. L. Jenkins, general manager of the penitentiary, R. B. Clark of Lee, W. F. Love of Amite and D. A. Love of Washington, in 1891 rec- ommended the establishment of a farm as the best solution of the
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penitentiary problem, and reported as to the desirability of sites. Gov. Stone advised the purchase of a tract in Rankin county.
The legislature did not act until 1894, when a commission was created to purchase not less than 4,000 nor more than 8,000 acres for a penitentiary farm or farms, and $125,000 was appropriated. The commission selected 3,200 acres in Rankin county at $5.50 per acre, and 4,800 in Yazoo county, at $15, which latter price the governor disapproved; whereupon 2,700 acres (Oakley place) were purchased in Hinds county for $20,000, and 2,000 acres on Honey island in Holmes county, (Belmont place), for $27,000. Gov. Stone regarded the farms as poorly adapted to the purpose, though worth the money, and advised the sale of two of them and the purchase of one large area in the delta, for negro prisoners, and the enlargement of the Rankin farms for whites. The farms were first worked in the year 1895, and there was net profit of $60,- 000, though the year was unfortunate agriculturally. A prison was built on the Rankin farm for the convicts not put to work, and after the old penitentiary was torn down (1900-01), buildings were used at the Oakley farm for the imprisonment of such con- victs. Such convicts as could not be provided for on the farms were worked on private plantations, with sharing contracts.
An act of 1900 required the establishment of a penitentiary farm or farms in addition to those already owned by the State, and the board of control was directed to make a purchase, $80,000 being appropriated. The board bought 13,789 acres in Sunflower county, at $5.78 per acre, very nearly the amount of the appropria- tion, and in 1901, four stockades were built and 2,000 acres cleared.
According to the report of 1902 the convict labor had been used in cultivating the four plantations of the State, known as the Rankin, Oakley, Belmont and Sunflower farms, and the board had also rented the Sandy Bayou plantation in Sharkey county and the Weathersby plantation in Coahoma, also cultivating nine planta- tions on the share system.
On the Sunflower farm in 1904, several stockades, or convict quarters, had been built, a well-equipped hospital, residences for sergeants and officers, barns, etc., four artesian wells bored, pro- ducing a better water supply than on any other of the farms. The farm, which had been bought for $80,000 was then appraised at $400,000. Gov. Longino said the policy of the board was not to hastily abandon all leases, but to gradually work away from them as the delta farm was prepared for cultivation. Up to January 1904, 3,500 acres of leased land had been abandoned. Again in the winter and spring of 1902-03 the convicts were put upon the levees to protect them from a great river flood.
Gov. Vardaman in his inaugural address, 1904, urged that the board of control should be abolished, and management of peniten- tiary affairs intrusted to one man, on the ground that the members of the board had other and ample official duties, and responsibility was so divided that efficient management was difficult. In his mes- sage of 1906 he renewed this recommendation, and severely criti-
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cised the action of the board in "contracting with a member of the legislature to work his plantation on shares," when there were 8,000 acres of land to be cleared on the Sunflower farm of timber which had been deadened and was ready to be put on the market. There were cleared lands, available for farming-5,000 acres on the Sunflower farm, 1,200 on the Belmont place, 600 or 800 on the Rankin farm and 1,500 on the Oakley place; most of the latter was rented out to small farmers. "If the State can make money work- ing a private individual's land and giving that private individual half the products of the convict's toil, I cannot understand why it cannot make more money working its own land and keeping the entire products of the convict's toil." In December, 1904, the board of control discarded the use of all plantations belonging to private persons except Sandy Bayou, belonging to State Senator H. J. McLaurin. At the December meeting, 1905, the board pro- posed to enter into another contract to work the Sandy Bayou farm, and Gov. Vardaman obtained a temporary injunction against such action, but this was afterward dissolved by the supreme court, and the board was sustained. A law was passed by the legis- lature of 1906, while this question was still being argued, forbid- ding the working of convicts on lands other than that owned by the State of Mississippi in fee simple, with the exception of work on levees, public works and public roads. A committee of the house investigated the management of the Oakley farm, at which is maintained the general hospital of the farm system, and made serious charges. The hospital was declared to be a "huge shack, absolutely unfitted" for its purpose; it had many windows open to the winter weather, and enormous quantities of whiskey were re- ceived. The committee urged the sale of the Oakley farm, concen- tration of all able-bodied negro convicts at the Sunflower farm, transfer of the sick from the delta to the hill farm in Rankin, and that penitentiary affairs be divorced from politics, and civil ser- vice rules adopted.
The governor further said in his 1906 message: "Partisan poli- tics should be absolutely eliminated from the penitentiary manage- ment. I say it with profound regret, but without fear of successful contradiction, that for many years the penitentiary has been the one festering sore upon the body politic-poisoned by the virus of private personal cupidity-the most corrupt and corrupt- ing influence in State politics." The governor estimated the pen- itentiary property as representing a capital invested of nearly $2,- 000,000. "The penitentiary farms should be the model farms of the State. They should be used to demonstrate upon a large scale the advantages to the farmers of experiments made at the Agricultural and Mechanical college on a small scale. Scientific agriculture, tile draining, fertilization of soil, growth of plants, should be the lessons taught upon the State's plantations. Intelligent direction, with the absolute control of the labor, would make that easy of accomplishment, and at the same time pecuniarily profitable to
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the State, also instructive to the convict, which lessons would be of use to him in after life."
W. W. Simonton, for the revenue agent, reported in 1906, after a thorough investigation of the penitentiary management, that the State had expended on the Sunflower farm, $335,073; that $256,- 308 had been received from the farm in cash, and the property was inventoried at $420,335, real estate, and $112,074 personalty. Another report of 1906 showed the total value of prison property to be $871,669.
The realty used by the Board of Control as State farms is sum- marized as follows:
Oakley place, 2,700 acres, valued at $36,900.
Rankin place, 3,200 acres, valued at $48,900.
Belmont place, 2,000 acres, valued at $67,125.
Sunflower place, 13,739 acres, valued at $477,224.
The total acreage of the four convict farms is 21,689 acres, val- ued at $630,549.
The total personalty valuation is $241,120 and the personalty is divided as follows: Oakley, $17,740; Rankin, $43,227; Belmont, $20.743; Sunflower, $158,038; Sandy Bayou, $1,830; office of Board of Control, $487 ; total, $241,120.
Penn, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Lowndes county, on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, about 15 miles from Columbus, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 100.
Pensacola campaign, 1861. The famous "Castor and Pollux" regiments, the 9th, Col. J. R. Chalmers and 10th, Col. S. M. Phil- lips, were organized at Pensacola in April, 1861. They partici- pated in the night attack on Pensacola and Santa Rosa island, Oc- tober 8, 1861, and served in Fort McRae during the bombardment in November. At Pensacola also served the Quitman light artil- lery, Capt. W. S. Lovell. Other Mississippi regiments were sent to this place in 1861-the 5th, Col. A. E. Fant, 8th, Col. C. G. Flynt ; 27th, Col. T. M. Jones. Col. Jones was in command when the evacuation was ordered. The regiments were then transferred to Corinth, and most of them were brigaded as Chalmers' brigade.
Pensions. An act of the legislature of 1888 made the first pro- vision for the disabled soldiers of the Confederate armies in the war of 1861-65. There had been pensioners in the State from an early date, comprising soldiers of the United States in the war of the Revolution, the war of 1812, and the war with Mexico; after 1865, for the war of 1861-65; and since 1898 there have been pen- sioners of the Spanish war. The act of 1888 provided an annual pension of $30 to soldiers or sailors of the Confederacy who had lost an arm or leg, or were incapacitated by wounds, and had no adequate support, their servants who had lost an arm or leg, and widows of those who died in the service. The appropriation was limited to $21,000. If there were over 700 applicants the allowance was to be a less amount individually. In 1890 the limit was in- creased to $30,000.
The constitution of 1890 (section 272) required legislature to
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provide pensions for "indigent soldiers and sailors who enlisted and honorably served in the Confederate army and navy in the late civil war, who are now resident in this State and are not able to earn a support by their own labor," also to indigent widows of sol- diers and sailors. Under this provision the legislature authorized an expenditure of not more than $64,200 per annum, on the esti- mate that such an appropriation would give $50 annually to each one entitled to a pension under the laws. In consequence of a large increase in the number, only $32.25 was paid to each pensioner in 1892, and afterward less. Governor Stone said in 1894 that many were receiving pensions who, under a proper administration of the law, would not be entitled to them. Under the law the au- ditor of state was pension commissioner, with almost arbitrary powers, but he reported in 1895 that unworthy influences had "led to raiding this fund by the unworthy, to the injury of the strictly deserving." The number of beneficiaries were then about 3,000, and the annual allowance a little over $20. He urged the abolition of the pension system and the maintenance of a soldiers' home. The list increased and additional appropriations were made. In 1896 the appropriation was $75,000. Pensioners were classified, 33 receiving $100 a year, 176, $50; and 1,909, $25. The balance, about 2,000 white and 114 negroes, shared equally what remained. The law of 1904 provides for two grades of disability, pensions of $75 and $125 a year, and requires equal division of what remains of the fund among the others who are qualified. The pensions paid in 1905 amounted to $250,000.
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