ABSTRACT DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY HIGHTOWER, EDWARD 0. B.A. MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE, 1994 CONVICTED AND RAILROADED: RUFUS B. BULLOCK AND GEORGIA CONVICT LEASiNG, 1868-1971 Committee Chair: Richard Allen Morton, Ph.D. Thesis dated May 2011 This is an examination of Governor Rufus B. Bullock and his management of the state’s convict lease system between the years of 1868-187 1, a period associated with Radical Reconstruction before the introduction of the “New South” era. Georgia’s majority black convict population was leased out to private railroad companies under Bullock’s Administration. They experienced harsh and brutal treatment at times, and even death. Many were arrested for minor offenses and handed excessive sentences, which provided a consistent and dependable cheap labor force. This labor resource was exploited in rebuilding Georgia’s rail system to foster trade. The study uses primary and secondary sources to ascertain Bullock’s culpability in a penal system so heinous that it rivaled slavery itself. Bullock abandoned the ideals of the Republican Party, which advocated liberty for all men, and acquiesced to the principles of industrialism and capitalism, clinging to the tenets of “free labor” at the expense of Georgia’s newly freed slaves. The implications of this study point to why Reconstruction failed and it excavates the etiology of contemporary penitentiary trends. CONVICTED AND RAILROADED: RUFUS B. BULLOCK AND GEORGIA CONVICT LEASING, 1868-187 1 A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS BY EDWARD 0. HIGHTOWER DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ATLANTA, GEORGIA MAY2011 ©201 1 EDWARD 0. HIGHTOWER All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the Most High! I’ .TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii Chapter 1. THE ANATOMY OF A RADICAL GEORGIA GOVERNOR Introduction 1 PurposeofStudy 17 Statement of the Problem 18 Significance of the Problem 20 Summary Section 23 Chapter 2. RECONSTRUCTION, FREE LABOR, AND CONVICT LEASING 27 Literature Review 31 Summary Section 43 Chapter 3. NORTHERN HOSPITALITY 48 Summary Section 60 Chapter 4. RAILROAD EXPANSIONISM 66 Summary Section 83 Chapter 5. “AT BREAKNECK SPEED” 88 Summary Section 127 Chapter 6. BULLOCK REVISITED 133 111 CHAPTER 1 THE ANATOMY OF A RADICAL GEORGIA GOVERNOR He [Bullock] would notjeopardize his social position to Jlght a battle he could not win. Although he always appealedjbr racialjustice, he placed businessfirst and continued to hope that prosperity would bring change. ‘—Russell Duncan. Introduction It was a volatile period for Georgia Politics during Radical Reconstruction. The prostrate state, still full of seething ex-Confederates, witnessed the handing over of its executive reins to a fiscally liberal Northern businessman from Albion, New York. The Governor had a vision to bring equality and prosperity to the state at a time when agrarianism was on the decline and industrialism began to emerge as a viable and necessary option in an economically depressed region. He sought to change the economic complexion of the state by repairing and expanding its demolished railroad system to foster interstate trade and commerce. This epoch in Georgia’s history brought along with it corruption, fraud and extravagant spending by Northerners and newly elected Republicans.2 Moreover, it advanced the re-enslavement of many African Americans through convict leasing. Governor Rufus B. Bullock is the symbol of this volatile and complex period—personified. An historical analysis on convict leasing reveals that Radical Republican Governor Rufus Bullock acquiesced to the horrors of the lease system and used black convict labor to help restore wealth in the state of Georgia through railroad construction, during Radical Reconstruction between 1868 and 1871. 1 2 Bullock’s entry into Georgia politics seemed capricious at best. He never thought about a career in politics, but because of his business influence in the state, he shortly found himself available. During Congressional Reconstruction, it was mandatory that the former Confederate states “hold a referendum and select a delegate” for each 3 The purpose of the 1867-1868 convention write new state’s convention. was to a state constitution. Because of Bullock’s prominence in the state of Georgia, he was elected as a delegate to the convention with no resistance. He was best known as the president of the National Bank of Augusta, as president of the Southern Porcelain Manufacturing 4 Involving himself in Company, and as a successful businessman and city councilman. politics made his economic and business vision for the state and himself more attainable. At the constitutional convention, clearly Bullock saw the opportunity to grasp the highest office in the state to propagate his passion for free labor now that slavery had ended. Since his predecessor and fellow Radical, Thomas Ruger, initiated the first two convict lease contracts, one in April and another in July of 1868, Bullock must have seen the potential in the continual exploitation of convict labor for his railroad plans.5 As the convention continued, he saw the possibilities of his railroad scheme coming to fruition, particularly when many Democrats refused to show. They repudiated Washington’s Reconstruction plans. The Democrats’ strategy failed. Most Democrats decided to forgo sending any delegates to the convention as a symbol of solidarity and resistance against the federal government.6 After all, they believed that the Reconstruction plan was illegal and perhaps believed that Georgia would retain the status quo. The 1867 Reconstruction Acts 3 allowed blacks to vote, along with ex-Confederates who decided to take the amnesty oath re-establishing allegiance to the United States. Bullock and the Republicans capitalized on the Democrats’ failure to vote. The Republicans wasted no time at the convention and hastened to address their intentions for a new South. The Republicans immediately set the tone of the convention. Foster Blodgett, the temporary chair of the convention, emphasized the Party’s platform of equal rights, justice and education for all. Blodgett framed this platform in the context of free labor. He stressed that emancipation was here and slavery was no more. Blodgett emphasized 7 Bullock the importance that all races work together. adopted these principles for his campaign. Once Bullock became the first postwar Republican governor of Georgia, he lost no time initiating his economic plan for the state. Shortly after, he exploited black convict labor in an effort to stabilize the state and increase revenue. What distinguished Bullock from his predecessors is that 8he decided to farm out the entire penitentiary to lessees to expand the state’s railroad system. Before politics, Bullock was a successful businessman in the telegraphy and railroad industries. In 1859, Bullock was coaxed away from the American Telegraph Company and hired by the president of Adams Express Company after the two merged. Many were impressed by his business savvy and adeptness. Bullock was sent to Augusta, Georgia to expand business in the region. Augusta, then, was a town full of white Northern entrepreneurs. Albion, New York where Bullock grew up was a vast contrast to the emerging Southern metropolis. In 1850, Albion only had two African Americans living within its city limits. One third of Augusta’s population was African American. In 4 9 Bullock’s 1860, of Augusta’s 12,493 inhabitants, almost four thousand were slaves. attraction to Augusta was indicative of his philosophy on economics and race. He usually mingled with Northern entrepreneurs and other businessmen. However, he often remained ambivalent when it came to African-Americans and their potential in the South. His experience in Augusta mirrored his core principles and beliefs, which guided him throughout his convict leasing activities. Bullock’s ability to become whatever he needed to be whenever convenient was a skill that came easily to him. While secession threatened Bullock’s economic prosperity before the war, knowledge of his Northern upbringing must have threatened the comfort of white Southerners in Augusta. After the war, he would be accused of being a federal spy.’° The timing of Bullock’s arrival in Georgia and his Northern business activities made white Southerners question his allegiance. When it came time for war, because of Bullock’s opportunistic business proclivities, he adorned the Confederacy’s uniform and was later handed the title Lieutenant Colonel. Furthermore, after the war, Bullock secretly helped the Confederates to transport in six wagons $1 .5 million worth of gold from South Carolina to Augusta. When the gold went missing, “Bullock insisted he had done his duty and knew nothing of it.” After the war, Bullock saw opportunities to bring his adopted state economic prominence through his vision of railroad expansion in an effort to increase interstate trade in Georgia, but also for his own personal profit. At the time of war “Bullock’s life thus far had been one of steady progress toward wealth and status. Rather than interrupting his advance, the war opened doors of opportunity by crushing the slave 5 system and promising to replace it with the Northern way of work,” Russell Duncan 2 He pursued wealth for the state as well as for himself through stated of Bullock.’ expanding railroad lines to stimulate Georgia’s economy. He successfully accomplished this through forced convict labor involving a majority black penitentiary