An ingenious peonage, however, was created by means of the
criminal law. Strict statutes were passed by States on guardianship,
vagrancy, and petty crimes. It was not difficult to bring charges
under these statutes, and the heavy penalties attached, together with
the wide discretion permitted to judge and jury, made it easy to
subject the culprit to virtual serfdom for a term of years. He would
be leased to some contractor, who would pay for his keep and would
profit by his toil. Whatever justification there may have been for
these statutes, the convict lease system soon fell into disrepute, and
it has been generally abandoned.
It was upon the land that the freedman naturally sought his economic
salvation. He was experienced in cotton growing. But he had neither
acres nor capital. These he had to find and turn to his own uses ere
he could really be economically free. So he began as a farm laborer,
passed through various stages of tenantry, and finally graduated into
land ownership. One finds today examples of every stage of this
evolution.[13] There is first the farm laborer, receiving at the end
of the year a fixed wage. He is often supplied with house and garden
and usually with food and clothing. There are many variations of this
labor contract. The "cropper" is barely a step advanced above the
laborer, for he, too, furnishes nothing but labor, while the landlord
supplies house, tools, live stock, and seed.
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