Joint Penitentiary Committee Report Excerpt
Background: This excerpt from an 1886 investigation by the Joint Penitentiary Committee of the Georgia State Senate and House of Representatives details the conditions at two of Senator Joseph E. Brown’s convict labor camps, the mines at Rising Fawn and Cole City. Government committees often reported horrible conditions, but their investigations of the state’s convict camps were sporadic and incomplete and usually resulted in a slap on the wrist of lessees. Here, the committee recommends (but does not require) Brown’s company “be more careful” with deadly working conditions and recommends that the governor “consider” removing a cruel whipping boss.
The convicts at [Rising Fawn] are required to work underground in excavations blasted out through rock and slate. The committee thinks there is considerable danger in some cases from falling slate. We found that one David Nash, (colored), from Decatur county, in for four years from February, 1885, for an assault with intent to murder, met with an accident about three months ago from the falling of some rock upon him in the mine. His jaw was broken, his knee hurt, a sharp piece of slate stuck in his back several inches, his head badly cut, and the scalp on the right side was removed from the top of his head almost to his ear. We respectfully ask the Governor to look into his case and ascertain if he is so permanently injured as to justify Executive clemency. The committee deem it just to state that no evidence was shown them through which blame could be attached to the lessees or parties having said convicts in charge, the same appearing to have been entirely accidental. We recommend, however, that the lessees be more careful in future, and have sufficient props or fastenings put under the slate and rock in the mines overhead where the convicts are at work . . .
We find a great many of these bunks and blankets [at Cole City] to be very black and dirty, having an exceedingly filthy appearance. No doubt if said blankets were washed and changed often it would insure the better health of the in mates. During each day the convicts are required to work in the mines digging, loading and shipping coal, from which work they become very black and dirty, and in many cases work in damp places, from which their clothes become wet and disagreeable, and in which condition they are required to sleep at night without any change of clothing. It is in this way that the said bunks and blankets become in the above stated filthy condition . . .
The mode of punishment is whipping with a leather strap on the naked person, inflicted by the whipping boss. It is claimed by several of the convicts that at times the punishment is severely and inhumanely inflicted, but, with the exception of the bare statement of the prisoners, the committee see no evidence to sustain the charge . . .
We find that the convicts unanimously speak well of Captain Reese, and of almost all other officers in charge at this camp, except one Killpatrick, the whipping boss. Against him the convicts make unanimous complaint, claiming that he is inhumane in inflicting punishment and that he is partial in his position as such boss. They further allege that he oftentimes inflicts punishment when not deserved, and as frequently refrains from inflicting it when it is.
The committee, after due investigation, think that there is some ground for such complaints, and recommend that the Governor consider the advisibility [sic] of removing said Killpattrick immediately, which, in the opinion of the committee, under all the circumstances should be done . . .
Source: Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia at the biennial session of the General Assembly at Atlanta, Wednesday, November 3, 1886, Atlanta, Georgia, http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ggp/id:y-ga-bl404-b1886.