The Florida Convict Camp: The American Siberia

First published in the late nineteenth century, The Florida Convict Camp: The American Siberia by J. C. Powell is a harrowing exposé of the Southern convict-leasing system, one of the darkest chapters in American penal history. Written by a former prison superintendent, the book offers a firsthand account of the brutality, corruption, and inhumanity that characterized the post–Civil War system of forced labor in Florida’s prison camps.

Powell describes in vivid and often shocking detail the conditions endured by prisoners, many of them African Americans subjected to re-enslavement under the guise of justice. His testimony exposes the moral and physical horrors of a system where punishment became profit and the chain gang replaced the plantation.

More than a memoir or report, Powell’s work stands as an indictment of institutional cruelty and a pioneering call for reform—one that helped to shape later movements toward penal and racial justice in the United States.

Complete edition of J. C. Powell’s firsthand account of the Florida convict-leasing system

Chronicles the abuses, exploitation, and corruption of postwar prison labor

A landmark document in the history of American justice and reform

Essential for readers of U.S. history, criminology, and civil rights studies