Discovery of peonage records in courthouse attic of Koscuisko, MS

In Peonage letter leads Harrell to Oprah Winfrey's childhood home, we presented a letter genealogist and peonage researcher, Antoinette Harrell, discovered in the National Archives.  This letter led Antoinette and her colleagues to  Koscuisko, Mississippi, childhood home of Oprah Winfrey situated in Attala County.

                                                                                                   Image via Wikipedia

Raised in this sharecropping community, Oprah recalls looking through a screen door watching her grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee (1900-1963), boiling clothes in a big black pot. Her grandmother's advice to her was to grow up and get her some "good white" folks.  In "African Ancestors Lives", Oprah shared how she had the distinct impression that this would not be her life.



I am just on the brink of understanding what life must have been like for people living in these conditions.  This area, like some of the other areas in Mississippi were logging towns.  I have ancestors who worked for saw mills.  It is important to learn about how they made their livelihood and the type of restrictions they lived under to understand why some could not make it out.


Forced labor in the United States helps to paint the picture:

"Let us try to picture the way in which a wage worker 
in a company-owned American textile, coal or lumber town 
centers into one of these "free" contracts, implying an agree- 
ment between equals, made "without duress" and "with full 
understanding of all the obligations assumed." The steps 
taken by the "party of the first part," the capitalist, to pre- 
pare the minds and bodies of the "party of the second part," 
the workers, to sign this "free" contract are somewhat as 
follows. 

A company in one of these towns shuts down its plant. 
Thousands of the workers suffer months of unemployment. 
The company threatens to import other workers at lower 
wages to take the jobs of those formerly employed. It pre- 

pares blacklists of those who may have criticized the com- 
pany or attempted to organize a union. It cuts off credit 
at the company store. It may even evict workers from 
company-owned houses. Finally gun thugs, policemen and 
detectives attempt to terrorize the workers. 

When the workers' ragged clothes hang limp on their 
starved bodies and when they have been terrorized suffi- 
ciently, the company, with the aid of its high-priced lawyers, 
draws up a contract. Usually the document consists of sev- 
eral pages of fine print which are full of "whereases" and 
conditions of every sort — ^all, of course, in the company's 
favor. 

At last all is ready for the signature of the "free worker." 
Hundreds or perhaps thousands line up in front of the 
employment office in response to a notice that the plant is 
about to resume operations. All of them, according to capi- 
talist theory, are waiting their turn to "bargain freely" with 
the corporation ! Usually the procedure of hiring the whole 
line of workers takes only a few minutes. As soon as they 
sign their names or make their mark they pass inside the 
factory gates — ^hired after having exercised their right to 
make a "free" contract. And not a line or a word of the 
form contract, drawn up by the lawyers, has been changed ! 

In practice, the worker is often forced to trade in the 
company store, to accept as pay scrip which is redeemable / 
only at the company store at a discount, and to live in a 
company house from which he can be evicted at the com* 
company's will. To incur the displeasure of the boss in one 
of these company towns means to be driven from the com- 
munity. 

The worker is bound to abide by the contract. In addi- 
tion to hunger there are other penalties which prevent him 
from breaking it. Among them are the clubs of company 
thugs and policemen, the bayonets of the militia, poison 
gas, and the enslaving orders of the courts. An example 
of the latter is the injunction. The ultimate purpose of the 


injunction is to keep workers in a condition bordering on 
involuntary servitude, and its immediate purpose is to break 
the resistance of workers who try to bargain collectively. 
A great many cases of injunctions might be cited which 
have prevented union members and others from leaving, or 
threatening to leave, their employment without the consent 
of their employers.* And very closely related to the injunc- 
tion is the yellow dog contract — a contract whereby workers 
"agree" not to join in any collective attempt to better wages 
or conditions no matter how bad these may be." See page 12.

Labor contracts, records of fees, and fines paid are all record types that may document peonage.  Most importantly, these resources hold a wealth of genealogical information.  Among the dusty old records in the dark courthouse attic in Koscuisko, Mississippi, and by the light of a flashlight, Antoinette Harrell uncovered the following document:

From Attala County Constable Book, in Attala County Mississippi.  Walter C. Black, Sr. photographer.

In this particular record, one Ephraim Holly is fined for assault.  If you will recall, James Weldon Johnson alleges that a letter from a correspondent charges that the Justice of the Peace at Kosciusko and the constable, Jeff Thurrell, were in a conspiracy to arrest colored and white people on trumped up charges, and fines are imposed.  Please review Peonage letter leads Harrell to Oprah Winfrey's childhood home where the letter from James Weldon Johnson is posted.

The constable, Thurrell or Therrell is mentioned  in this record.  Let's assume Ephraim Holly, the defendant, was the ancestor you were tracing, and this was the only record you had that documents his name.  How would you proceed to learn more about him from this point?

Peonage letter leads Harrell to Oprah Winfrey's childhood home

Among the documents that genealogist and peonage researcher, Antoinette Harrell,  discovered at the National Archives was a letter from James Weldon Johnson, secretary of the NAACP, on February 9, 1927 to Attorney General of the Department of Justice, Hon. John G. Sargent.  The letter identifies cases of peonage in the counties of Attala and Coahoma, Mississippi. Sheriff Glass, and J. W. Cuterer are alleged to have plantations practicing peonage in Clarksdale.   Kosciusko, Mississippi is the birth place of Oprah Winfrey.

James Weldon Johnson alleges that a letter from a correspondent charges that the Justice of the Peace at Kosciusko and the constable, Jeff Thurrell, were in a conspiracy to arrest colored and white people on trumped up charges, and fines are imposed. These fines, Weldon states, are being paid by a saw mill and logging camp at Zama in Attala County which holds the prisoners indefinitely.

This letter found among  Dept. of Justice collection NARG60

These records are not indexed by surname, geographical area, or demographics.  This letter was found among Dept. of Justice Collection NARG60.


Peonage is economic slavery

It is significant that we remind you about the 2006 series "African Ancestors Lives," hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates.  A portion of Oprah's genealogy was featured in this series, and Gates briefly mentioned the sharecroppers who rented land at very high prices and who worked and were paid far less than what they should have been paid for their labor.  Gates said, "Racism was about economics, who was going to control the pie."

Homesite of Oprah Winfrey, Koscuisko, Mississippi. Walter C. Black, photographer.

He made no mention specifically of peonage, nor how prevalent it was in the series.  Curious, I discovered that Dr. Gates published a book three years after the series in 2009 called "In Search of Our Roots:  How 19 extraordinary African Americans reclaimed their past.  In this book, Gates provides a definition of peonage and explains its broader scope:

"The rural poverty she (Oprah) describes was typical, indeed pervasive, among black people in the South.  Oprah grew up in a community of sharecroppers, people bound to the soil by a system that was intended to replace slavery with its mirror image, a system of peonage to which most blacks were charged economically, as surely as they had been charged in slavery.

The vast majority of former slaves became sharecroppers, almost as soon as slavery ended, and very few were able to break out of this system and own their own land,"  (page 209).

On to Koscuisko

"After reviewing the contents of this box and analyzing each document, I found the records to be very valuable to my research, and I was determined to travel to these places.  I traveled to Koscuisko, the childhood home of Oprah Winfrey." said Antoinette Harrell. 

"When I got to Koscuisko, I found open land, open territory, and a small town.  My first stop was the courthouse in Attala County.  Also traveling with me that day was Walter C. Black, Sr, John Moseley, and John Johnson.  At this time, I was looking for documents from Sheriff Glass in the constable books.

I was told that any records prior to 1984 were housed in the courthouse attic.  The staff contacted the sheriff to get permission for me to go into the attic.  When I went into the attic I went into total shock over the conditions of the records stored there,"  explains Antoinette Harrell.

Records in Attala, Mississippi Courthouse attic, Walter C. Black, photographer

"I felt such a lonely, dark, and sad feeling immediately when I entered the attic.  There was a legend about ghosts in the attic, and people did not go up there.  I believe the ghosts were souls who were not at rest who wanted their stories to be told.  I told them that I was there to set them free,"  explained Harrell.

Hundreds and hundreds of people suffered injustices  in that courthouse, and their stories were among the dusty books in the courthouse attic.  Harrell believes it is very important that their stories are told.

According to Harrell, the records pictured here were not indexed, were dusty, and exposed to bird droppings, water, and silverfish. The attic was completely dark, and they had to examine the records using a flashlight.

About the stories

The loneliness, darkness, and sadness that Antoinette felt in the attic was because she knew there were so many untold stories in the dusty books in the attic.  There was no way out for them.

"There was no way out for them--no justice system that would ever hear their cries.  some of them died as 20th Century slaves," exclaimed Harrell.

In "African American Lives,"  Henry Louis Gates shares with Oprah how to get to know our ancestors:

"How we even begin to understand their lives...begin by listening to their stories.  Some are humorous, some are painful, but all make up the essence of African American history."

Antoinette Harrell, who has painstakingly sacrificed to help today's victims of peonage and educate us about our ancestors who lived a life of involuntary servitude, understands the need for us to understand the stories:

"Was I afraid in the courthouse?  Was I ever afraid about what could happen to me or my colleagues? I had to do it. I knew I would go if no one went.  The more I learned, the deeper I was called into untouched territory...

 Who held them?

What held them?

Why couldn't they get away?

When I opened the books hidden in a dark attic since 1923,  pages shed light on names that history would not recall.  I was releasing them.  What if this was me?  Although I would be dead, would I want someone to learn about my story?  No one would have interest in these records but those who are searching their family's genealogical history.   History is being uncovered everyday. Our duty and our responsibility is to leave no stone unturned.  We start to turn over the stones, and we find things that become a hard pill to swallow.

We must go beyond the basics of "safe genealogy."  By safe genealogy, I mean birth, death, marriage, and census records.  Genealogy is one of subjects and courses that will unearth the vital history found in peonage records." 

We will reveal a document Harrell discovered in the next post.  For now, what are some bits of genealogical data found in this letter from James Weldon Johnson?