25 May 1901: County Donates Convict Labor to UGA

On this day in 1901, the Athens Daily Banner reported that work had begun on the University of Georgia campus for two new buildings, a dining hall and a dormitory, using convict labor provided by the Clarke County Commission to grade the land.

The dining hall would open in the fall as Denmark Hall, named for prominent Savannah attorney and business executive Brantley A. Denmark (UGA Class of 1871), who had died just days before the cornerstone for the building was laid on June 14th. 


The dormitory was completed in January, 1902, as Candler Hall, in honor of Georgia Governor Allen Daniel Candler. It was the third dormitory built on campus, along with Old College and New College. Residents of Candler called it "Buckingham Palace" and referred to themselves as the "Buckingham Barons." Rivalries between dormitories often went beyond mere athletic contests on Herty Field between the buildings.


Convict labor was a common solution to the need for cheap workers in the post-war South. Prisoners were often leased to private individuals to work on the farm, in their factories, or do other labor, such as railroad infrastructure, at a far cheaper rate than workers hired from the unincarcerated labor force. Convict laborers were disproportionately African-American, and it was not unusual for men to be literally worked to death. 


Though outlawed in 1908 in Georgia, chain gangs to work on public roads and other projects still existed. Clarke County often required labor when fines for misdemeanors such as disorderly behavior could not be paid, sentencing the convicted to work on the paving of the streets or installation of the city's sewer system at a rate of 50 cents per day. 


Governor Ellis Arnall instituted comprehensive prison reform during his term in the 1940s, and chain gangs were no longer permitted. Today, some prisoner work is still done on state and county levels, including basic building maintenance and litter clean-up along major roads.




Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1901 - Oct. 1901 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Red and Black Archive on the University of Georgia Libraries website.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon in the general collection.
• I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! by Robert Elliott Burns in the biography collection.
• Convict Lease System in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

24 April 1861: The Troup Artillery Departs for Savannah

On this day in 1861, the city of Athens had a festive send off of their local Troup Artillery, which had been called up to assist in the protection of Savannah. Their train departed at 11 o'clock in the morning, with stops in Greensboro and Augusta. 


Once in Savannah, "the men pitched their tents in two rows of ten each, leaving a space fifty yards wide for the guard tent" in parade ground near Bull Street. They named their cannons for Athens ladies back home, Sallie (for Sallie Craig), Helen (for Helen Newton), and Olivia (for Helen's sister).  They would stay in Savannah until June 26th, when they went north to Richmond, Virginia.


In what was called "the grandest civic and military display Athens has ever witnessed," the men of the Troup Artillery were escorted to the train depot by the Oconee Cavalry, the Athens Guards, the Athens Fire Department, the Lumpkin Law School Cadets, many citizens of the city, and students from the University. A band played music at the front of the procession.


At the depot, speeches were given and prayers "to protect those who were about to leave us" were made in front of an estimated crowd of 2,000-3,000 people. According to the Southern Banner, "There was scarcely a dry eye in that vast assemblage. Many were unable to even to utter the last good-bye, and gave the last warm pressure of the hand, which spoke more eloquently the anguish within, than words could have conveyed."


The local papers in Savannah reported on their arrival, stories that were reprinted in local Athens papers, such as this one:

Though initially, the Athens papers had only a partial list of men in the Troup Artillery, a more complete report of officers and privates came from the Savannah News and reprinted the following week in the Banner:

Captain--Marcellus Stanley.
1st Lieutenant--Henry H. Carlton.
2nd Lieutenant--Alexander F. Pope.
3d Lieutenant--Edward P. Lumpkin.
Ensign--Pope Barrow.
1st Sergeant--George J. Newton.
2d Sergeant--Columbus W. Motes.
3d Sergeant--George A. Homer.
4th Sergeant--Ruel K. Pridgeon.
5th Sergeant--Baptist H. Swan.
1st Corporal--Lee Lyle.
2d Corporal--Lafayette C. Cooper.
3d Corporal--Thomas F. Baker.
4th Corporal--Wm. H. P. Jones.

PRIVATES:
Samuel T. Aaron,
George B. Atkisson,
Joseph A. Blackman,
Thomas A. Barrow,
George P. Bennett, Richard G. Bearden,
John M. Bostick,
James M. Brown,
Benjamin Culp,
Robert Childers,
Bartholomew R. Cain,
Hedges C. Conger,
Hinton C. Dillard,
James F. Dillard,
Robert F. Dorsey,
Albert S. Dorsey,
John C. Davours,
William H. Dicken,
John W. Edwards,
E. T. England,
Lorenzo D. Furgusson,
John O'Farrell,
Robert Flournoy,
Joseph Gerdine,
John J. Griffith,
Wm. Hemphill,
John H. Hughes,
James M. A. Johnson,
Charles M. Lumpkin,
Frank Lumpkin,
Absalom E. Lee,
Howard L. Mullins,
Edward M. Maxey,
David McDonald,
John J. McConnell,
Wm. P. Meeler,
Isaac S. Moore,
Robert Moore,
H. D. C. F. D. Muller,
John F. Murray,
Almon L. Nance,
Joseph A. Moore,
Edward Pittman,
Augustus C. Patman,
John A. Parks,
John Patrick,
Edwin W. Porter,
Anderson W. Reese,
Edgar Richardson,
James Pledger,
James T. Sansom,
Thomas H. Shaw,
Joseph C. Strickland,
Benjamin Pope Taylor,
Obediah Vincent,
Isaac Vincent,
John O. Waddell,
Henry F. Winn,
George C. Williams,
T. D. Williams. 

The unit was part of the 2nd Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, and joined Cobb's Legion in December, 1861. Among the battles they participated in were Antietam (17 September 1862), Fredericksburg (16 December 1862), Chancellorsville (1-3 May 1863), and Gettysburg (1-3 July 1863). They disbanded after the end of the war, in April, 1865, having lost 47 men.

Learn More:

• Southern Banner, Mar. 11, 1858 - Jul. 1862 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Confederate Athens by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens, 1861-1865: As Seen Through Letters in the University of Georgia Libraries, edited by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• These Men She Gave: Civil War Diary of Athens, Georgia by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Southern Watchman, Athens, Georgia: Civil War Home Front Coverage, 1861-1865, abstracted by Faye Poss in the Heritage and general collections.
• Compendium of the Confederate Armies: South Carolina and Georgia, Volume 7, by Stewart Sifakis in the Heritage collection.
• Campfires of Georgia's Troops, 1861-1865 by William S. Smedlund in the Heritage collection.
• Rebel Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Civil War Historic Markers by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in the Heritage collection.