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One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South, 1866-I928. By Matthew J. Mancini. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996. Pp. xi, 283. $34.95.)
Convict leasing was a system whereby penitentiary prisoners were leased (rented) out to lessees who could use them in any endeavor, no matter how dangerous, and treat the felons any way they desired. The evils were myriad, and by the time one completes Matthew J. Mancini's book the reader understands how incredibly despicable the system was and became even worse over time. Economically profitable for a number of years in a number of states, leasing had no redeeming value in any shape, form, or manner. The only difference between the leasing camps and the Nazi gas chambers was the fact that in the South they did not often immediately murder those who would labor for them. Under leasing, it was a slower and agonizing death.
Since I994 three studies have appeared about Southern convict leasing. Its Southern predominance in the six decades following the Civil War (it now seems to be coming...