Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More

"Convict leasing" begins.

Date: 1866

PIC
JCL
LAB

Convict leasing is the practice of "leasing out" incarcerated people (usually Black men) to work for private individuals. This is one of the strategies used to maintain the system of enslavement after Emancipation, as incarcerated people are "leased" to work plantations and mines. As an archetype for the labor exploitation of criminalized people, convict leasing forms the blueprint for future forms of prison labor.