Louisville and Nashville Railroad: Convict Lease Labor Expands

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad became a major user of leased Black convicts in Alabama and Tennessee throughout the 1880s. Men convicted under vagrancy and petty theft laws — overwhelmingly Black — were leased to the railroad at pennies per day. Death rates in railroad convict camps reached 15-20% annually; bodies were frequently buried in unmarked sites along the right-of-way.