It wasn’t so many weeks ago that the people of North Carolina were shocked by a story coming out of the Eastern part of the state regarding the barbarity practiced on prisoners working in Edgecombe county by supervisors of one of the convict camps there and of the death in one instance of a negro who had been hitched behind a pair of mules and drug for a considerable distance while he was in an almost unconscious condition and of his death a short time after.
Now from Stanly County comes a story equally as bad or worse treatment according to prisoners by one C.C. Cranford, who is in charge of the county chain gang and who, if all reports are correct, most assuredly must be a beast in the form of a human beings, and who should immediately be removed and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and made to suffer for his act.
The investigation of the Stanly County case was made under the supervision of Mrs. Kate Burr Johnson, state commissioner of charities and public welfare, who sent disinterested persons to that county to inquire into the affairs and there is no possible chance of politics playing any part in the investigation, as Cranford and other officials in the county charge. Now here are a few of the conditions which these investigators found in Stanly:
--That Cranford strikes prisoners on the road.
--That one prisoner with a broken or dislocated wrist received no medical attention.
--That among the punishments inflicted on prisoners are the following: Tying up all day with arms elevated, allowing and encouraging “stool pigeons” to assault another prisoner; hanging a prisoner up by the feet.
--Other charges of mistreatment are disgusting in their coarseness, such as smearing the mouth of a prisoner with human filth, some of these charges being reported by different prisoners.
In the case of Henry Wooten, the negro who died in May, 1925, Cranford administered harsh and continued cruel treatment, according to prisoners. One day after Wooten was beaten up several times, he refused to walk, or thought he could not walk. A snatch chain was fastened to his shackles and he was dragged behind a tractor for some distance. After this treatment, he walked. Cranford walked behind him and threw stones at him, hitting him almost every step. Wooten was never able to work on the road after this day. He was set to patching the clothes of the prisoners. When he could not finish his task, he was flogged and made to work until midnight. Wooten lived 28 days from the time he came to the road camp. The last week he was unable to do any work. According to the prisoners who cut his chains off two days before he died, his ankles were skinned, his legs burst, and his body raw from the floggings. Dr. Lentz, the county physician, stated to Brown that the shackles had inflamed the man’s ankles, and that it was necessary for him to open the skin to let out the pus.
Another negro prisoner, Arthur Butler, was made to stand up all day Sunday with his hands tied above his head, because, according to Cranford, he would not work during the week. Prisoners stated that Cranford beat Butler constantly. On one occasion, Cranford put a box of Epsom salts on his food and made him eat it, standing over him with a strap. When he vomited the food, Cranford forced him to eat it again.
It seems impossible that such a condition as this could exist in a civilized state as North Carolina claims to be. Yet we have not the least doubt but that the four investigators which Mrs. Johnson sent out to make this inquiry reported the facts as they found them and that there was no exaggeration.
We do not wonder that North Carolinians bow their heads in shame when men and women from other states call attention to conditions which exist here, but we do know that such conditions can be done away with.
We, like others, do not believe that any good will come of calling the attention of officials in Stanly County to this condition. It is known to them and has been known. It is up to the Attorney General of North Carolina and to Governor McLean to go thoroughly into the matter and to see that there is a cessation put to such cruelties as are now being practiced there, and we believe that when their attention is called to this condition that they will take action.
From the editorial page of the Carolina Jeffersonian, Raleigh, N.C., Oct. 17, 1925. Keep in mind that men were sent to the work camps/chain gangs for a variety of reasons. Most of the men were simply too poor to pay the fines for relatively minor crimes like vagrancy and speeding. And as far as not working hard enough or fast enough, consider the fact that of course someone is the slowest worker in any group.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073001/1925-10-17/ed-1/seq-4/
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