What is Convict Leasing?

In the years following Civil War, Southern plantation owners and businessmen lost the low-cost labor force of slaves, around which they had built an economy. The Emancipation Proclamation eliminated the federal government’s tolerance of slavery and forced former slaveholders to look elsewhere for labor solutions. Businessmen and state governments in Southern states soon realized that these protections did not apply to African Americans who had been convicted of crimes and could subsequently receive a prison sentence. A system was developed in which an individual, usually an African American male, would be convicted of a crime and sentenced to labor. A business owner would then lease the labor of the convict from the state and regain access to the low-cost, unregulated labor market once provided by slavery. Demand for convict lessees quickly exceeded the supply of lawbreakers. To meet the demand for labor, African Americans were arrested for minor crimes such as vagrancy or walking alongside railroad tracks, but given felony-level sentences. The laws used for these purposes became known as the Pig Laws (named after the felony of stealing a farm animal). They were the precursor to the Jim Crow laws that would dominate the Southern legal system until the middle of the twentieth century.

Labor conditions for convict lessees were often similar to those faced by slaves. The state was negligent in ensuring that convicts were treated appropriately and numerous African Americans died due to inhumane working and health conditions. The system was very profitable for both the government and the businesses that employed convicts, as the government could avoid most of the costs of maintaining a prisoner and the business could hire labor at a fraction of the appropriate cost. Eventually as the twentieth Century progressed, negative publicity about the treatment of convicts became more prevalent. Texas officially abolished its convict leasing system in 1910, though convict labor has continued in some form up to the present day, most notably in southern states such as Mississippi. Alabama, the last state to abolish its official convict leasing program, did so in 1928.

What is the History of Convict Leasing in Sugar Land?

Shortly following the end of the Civil War, Cunningham’s purchase of what used to be “Oakland Plantations” shaped much of what Sugar Land has become today. He invested more than $1 million into the property, developing a sugar mill and a sugar refinery, and then a town began to develop around it. At the time, much of the work force was made up of convicts that were leased from prison farms. After slavery was outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment (which included a loophole that allowed for the involuntary servitude of a convicted criminal), blacks in America were incarcerated at far higher rates than their white contemporaries, which is a racial gap that continued up to modern times. These men and women were commonly leased to work on plantations such as Cunningham’s. After Cunningham’s plantation changed hands and became the home of the Imperial Sugar Company, the leasing of convicts continued.

The state of Texas opened the Imperial State Prison Farm, one of the first penal institutions it owned, in 1909 on land that had previously belonged to Imperial Sugar. It was renamed the Central State Prison Farm in 1930, and construction on additional units funded by the Texas state legislature soon followed. By the 1950’s, over 1,000 inmates resided in the prison. Over the years, land was transferred/sold to other parties to aid in Sugar Land’s rapid development. The 5,200-acre prison farm was reduced to about 330 acres by February 2011, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice officially announced the closing of the Central State Prison Farm in August of the same year. The remaining inmates were spread throughout the state, with quite a few landing in the nearby Jester State prison farm units.

History of Sugar Land

Samuel M. Williams, the first settler on the plot that is now called Sugar Land, dubbed his newly inherited land “Oakland Plantations”, for the variety of oaks that grew in the area. Granted the land by Stephen F. Austin (who initially received it from the Mexican government) in 1828, the Williams family ran their corn, cotton, and sugarcane-growing plantation until 1853, when they sold it to Benjamin F. Terry and William J. Kyle, a pair of gold prospectors who’d managed to scrape together a fortune in California. Terry and Kyle continued to oversee the plantation’s operations until their deaths. The land was then bought by E. H. Cunningham, who began the development of his sugar refinery.

In 1908, Isaac H. Kempner and William T. Eldridge bought Cunningham’s sugar plantation and created Imperial Sugar Company. A modest company town began to form around the sugar company, with Imperial itself providing housing (much of which remains standing today), hospitals, and businesses for its workers. Sugar Land remained largely a company town until 1959, when voters officially made it a city. The population grew steadily, from 3,100 in 1964 to 14,898 in 1988, to an estimated 83,860 in 2013, helped in large part by the development in its neighboring city of Houston.

Building Over the Past

In Sugar Land, Texas, the largest city in Fort Bend County, one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the country, sits the community of Telfair. The San Diego-based developer, Newland Communities, broke ground on the residential area in February of 2005 and dubbed it Telfair, likely after Edward Telfair, a prominent individual in the Thirteen Colonies during the Revolutionary War. A native Scotsman, Telfair came to America in 1758 and settled in Savannah, Georgia in 1766, where he, his brother William, and another Scotsman went into business together. As was typical of the most successful merchants and planters in eighteenth century Georgia, Telfair owned a great many slaves, and was also a consultant on many slave issues. 

Many people don’t give much thought to the origins of the names for streets, residential areas, and institutions that they frequent every day. Cunningham Creek Drive, Ellis Creek Drive, Terry Street, Voss Road, and Telfair are just a few of the street names in Sugar Land that are named for known slave owners and/or Confederate veterans. Residential areas with names such as Plantation Homes and Magnolia Plantations are found throughout the city as well. While some might defend the choice to acknowledge history by naming establishments after these individuals, others question whether we should honor people who knowingly believed in and fought for the continuation of a system of a enslavement.

Why Do We Know So Little About Convict Leasing?

The end of convict leasing was quiet and gradual enough that many Americans did not notice the change. For obvious reasons, neither the state nor local governments wanted to claim responsibility and ownership of a system that reminded many observers of slavery. Businesses that leased convicts continued to operate, now using legal labor supplies, and prisons where leased convicts were housed remained in operation. Convict leasing never quite garnered enough public attention to become a historical priority as the years distancing it from the present increased.

By the end of the twentieth century in Sugar Land, most of the landmarks associated with convict leasing had become obsolete and the city attempted to move on from its past. By selling buildings from the Central Prison Farm and the Imperial Sugar Factory, the city repurposed facilities to better serve their growing population, but did so at the expense of historical preservation. Large tracts of land that had been farmed by convicts were sold to Newland Communities and developed into the neighborhood currently known as Telfair, despite a lack of certainty over whether or not there were convict graves located on the land. Similarly situated land was given to the University of Houston to build a Sugar Land campus. The quickly growing population of Sugar Land has very little knowledge or awareness of the convict leasing past of the land, due to a historical separation created by time and, indirectly, by city action.

Seeking Appropriate Commemoration

Since forming the Texas Slave Descendants Society (TSDS) in the early 2000’s, Reginald Moore, Chairman of the Board, has relentlessly worked to gain recognition for the past abuses associated with Sugar Land’s convict leasing system. In the eyes of TSDS, while convict leasing itself was an injustice, the lack of recognition of the practice is a continuance of injustice.

Since the disproportionate majority of those in the convict leasing program were black males, their absence negatively affected the local black community, as many children grew up without the guiding influence and financial contributions of their fathers. This effect can be felt years later, as the lack of paternal influence extends through the generations and often resulted in an economic deprivation for the families involved. For this reason, TSDS believes that those who engaged in convict leasing should give descendants of convict lessees reparations as a way to make up for the absence of fathers that the system created. Mr. Moore hopes that this restitution money would help fund prison exit programs in the modern prison context.

TSDS desires an apology from official actors, such as the State of Texas, the City of Sugar Land, and the Imperial Sugar Company, to recognize the wrongdoing that occurred. All three of these actors played a part in the convict leasing system in Sugar Land, though Sugar Land was not incorporated at the time, and all three actors benefitted from the existence of the system. At the same time, no one actor was fully responsible for the system and its resulting injustices. Mr. Moore has tirelessly pursued an apology from all of these actors, but has often been referred to another official entity in a swirl of bureaucracy.

Advocacy in the Present

Texas Slave Descendents Society (TSDS) pursues general recognition for the lessees’ suffering in the convict leasing system. TSDS seeks this recognition via historical markers in Sugar Land, Austin, and elsewhere, as well as memorials commemorating the convict lessees. Reginald Moore and TSDS also advocate a convict leasing memorial museum in Sugar Land. TSDS also pursues the historical preservation of Texas Prison Farm buildings.

As part of an effort for historical preservation, Moore and TSDS seek archeological studies of sites in Sugar Land, particularly with regard to cemeteries. Due to the high mortality rate in the convict leasing system, several unrecognized cemeteries or burial sites exist in Sugar Land. The increased gentrification in recent years disregards this potential history in favor of building, creating a context that often prices descendants of convict lessees out of the local real estate market.

Public Testimony

A sampling of City of Sugar Land Executive Committee meeting summaries, noting the repeated presence of Reginald Moore and his constant public pressure to make some sort of rememberance for the convict leasing that tht city of Sugar Land was founded upon.

Public Testimony

This testimony was given by Reginald Moore at the Texas State Board of Education, regarding treatment of slavery in Texas within Texas history textbooks, September 11, 2018.