Free labor united against convict labor as unfair competition

Evidence

Fighting a railroad or a giant steel company was difficult, but these were not the only enemies of labor. Another enemy was prison labor. Unions and workingmen considered convict labor a form of unfair competition. Convicts made shoes, chairs, and many other items; and of course they worked without getting paid. Southern states frequently leased out gangs of convicts to private businesses. Convicts mined coal in Tennessee, and in that state, in the late nineteenth century, “free” coal miners rose up, and even resorted to arms against this competitive system. Many states passed laws putting some form of restriction on convict labor, or the products of convict labor. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3189

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly supports the sacrifice essay’s exploration of coerced labor regimes, and adds a class-conflict angle: free workers violently resisted convict leasing, treating penal labor as a wage-depressing rival.
• XREF: Connects to ch11 claims on colonial poor relief and the state-economy relationship, and to the course thread on labor/institutions. — connects to: Free labor competition breeds unity; only imposed color barriers breed durable animosity — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 358; Workers’ own campaigns ultimately isolated and despised convicts — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 438

Broader Connections

• Workers’ own campaigns ultimately isolated and despised convicts #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 438
• Free labor competition breeds unity; only imposed color barriers breed durable animosity #complicates (0.75) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 358