Convicts, coal, and the Banner Mine tragedy /

Usually, men who dig for coal or precious metals beneath the earth's surface do so because mining is their vocation and they get paid for the dangers that stalk them. Ward (Georgia Southern College, emeritus) and Rogers (Florida State University) reveal, however, that early in this century some Alabama convicts became coal miners for state-contracted mining companies as punishment for their crimes. Alabama was one of many states utilizing convict leasing, but an accident in 1911 in the Banner Mine near Birmingham focused state and national attention on the practice. Convicts is an expose of social, political, and state history, but it also reveals how one state used convict leasing and its prisons to maintain social control. Imprisoned blacks, in particular, faced the probability of horrible deaths in the mines. Convict leasing was discarded in due course, but many people suffered before the practice ended. Convicts is for those concerned about state, ethnic, social, or environmental history. College, university, and public libraries.-P.D. Travis, Saint Edward's University