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Locked Up: A Historical Look at Incarceration in New Orleans and Louisiana: Angola, West Feliciana Parish

Convict Leasing as a Business

Beginning in 1844, Louisiana leased out inmates and their labor. In 1870 Louisiana awarded the contract for convict leasing to Major Samuel Lawrence James, a former Confederate officer, for a period of 21 years. The State of Louisiana took over Angola in 1901.

On The Farm

Rural dirt road. Open fields. Rider in suit and hat sits on a horse. Behind him, hands tied, sits a Recaptured escapee. In road a trustee holds a pack of dogs by their leashes. Both prisoners wear striped uniforms.

Lytle, Andrew David, 1834-1917. LSU Libraries. Special Collections

A large group of uniformed prisoners pick cotton. A rider on horseback with cowboy hat watches over them. Another watching man holds a double-barreled shotgun over his shoulder.

Lytle, Andrew David, 1834-1917. LSU Libraries. Special Collections

Buildings

cotton gin. large wood siding building. Smokestack and large cistern.

Cotton Gin, State Library of Louisiana Historic Photograph Collection

women's quarters. Three wooden buildings behind a barbed wire fence.

Women's Quarters, State Library of Louisiana Historic Photograph Collection