My upcoming book, Song of Jaybird, is a historical fiction about a turpentine camp at the turn of the 20th century. When I began my research and writing, I knew nothing about turpentine camps or debt peonage.
My research gave me an understanding and awareness of the peonage system. Learning about the use of bonded labor, I also came across several sites exploring the continued use of this practice, which gave me some insight into the plight of humans taking advantage of the less fortunate or disadvantaged people.
In this blog, I would like to expand on the practice of Debt Peonage, even today. The history of the peonage system extends the globe and goes back (in general) to the beginning of humankind. I realize this statement is simplified “in a nutshell.”
Peonage originates from the Spanish word peon, meaning farm worker or unskilled laborer. In Mexico, it meant a person in servitude to “pay off debt.” However, the term is defined ‘as the exploitation of a person by another person to gain profit from the worker under bonded labor.’
In 1850, Abolitionists compared the debt peonage system in New Mexico to Antebellum slavery in the Southeastern United States. After Emancipation was signed in 1863, which declared slaves free, the slaveholders needed labor; therefore, the debt peonage system was a means to keep ‘unskilled workers.’
Pete Daniels wrote, “If there is no law to authorize peonage, there is no peonage.”The Shadow of Slavery: Peonage in the South 1901-1969 (p.13) This statement was the basic philosophy of many owners of mines, forests, and farms, which was why it was so difficult for lawyers and courts to try cases against those guilty of using the peonage system. But try, they did! It was apparent what was happening in the turpentine industry; for example, some camps were more violent than others. Many newspapers, essays, and persistent investigations constantly documented the practices used. Historically or presently, wealthy owners were influential in fighting the legal system. Henry Flagler won cases against him when he was accused of using convict labor and debt peonage for his Florida East Coast Railway.
In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), W.E.B. Dubois wrote, “Slaves went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) was an African-American Activist who gave a speech on peonage, “Peonage in the United States, The Convict Lease and The Chain Gangs” (1907) (which you can read in its entirety) and stated: “There is no lack of law by which to punish the guilty, but they are permitted to perpetrate fearful atrocities upon the humane people in this country who know little or nothing about the methods pursued in the chain gangs, the convict lease system and the contract labour system, which are all children of one wicked and hideous mother, peonage.” Mary Grace Quackenbos (1869-1846) was a Special Assistant to the US District Attorney and went undercover as a “journalist” to investigate turpentine camps. She concentrated her investigations on the forced labor of immigrants also being used. In an article in the Florida Historical Quarterly (1979), Jerrell Shofner cited, ‘She was a visitor Florida did not want.’
Eventually, debt peonage and forced labor were outlawed in the United States. However, exploitation still happens through sex trafficking, immigrant labor, and migrant farm workers. Certain countries have banned it globally, but regardless, it continues worldwide, in sweatshops, brickwork, and weaving industries, for example. The source of labor is practiced in Africa and SE Asian countries; many children inherit their parents' debt to their employers, and the endless cycle is not quickly broken, if ever.
How can we become conscious and more aware of this victimization? I hope some of the resources I have listed will help.
