Convict Lease Camps: Death Rates of 40% Annually, Primarily Affecting Black Men

Convict leasing in Southern states produced documented death rates of 16-40% annually in the most dangerous camps — rates far exceeding even chattel slavery's mortality. Men were worked in mines, turpentine camps, sawmills, and railroad construction under conditions deliberately designed to extract maximum labor before death. Lessor companies faced no penalty for deaths since they paid per prisoner per year and could simply request new prisoners. The overwhelming majority of convicts were Black men arrested under vagrancy laws designed to produce a cheap labor supply. Alabama's coal mines were among the most lethal.