The story of Alabama’s convict leasing system, in effect from 1866 to 1928 (last state to outlaw this horrific system), is an infamous chapter in the state’s history. Robert Patton, Alabama governor in 1865, declared that the state’s felons, rather than being housed in the penitentiary, should be “leased.” His rationale was that blacks, rapidly becoming the penitentiary’s majority population, did not regard confinement as punishment, and should “feel the hardship of labor in iron and coal mines.” The Role of Convict Leasing focuses on early state and local laws enacted by Alabama politicians to justify their use of convict labor.