During the height of the Great Depression, Paul Peacher, a sheriff and farmer from Earle, Arkansas, was convicted of enslaving eight African American men to work on his land.
[1] While the 13th Amendment banned slavery, African Americans who were convicted of crimes were forced to work through the peonage system.
Peonage was ubiquitous in slavery states, targeting formerly enslaved people through the Post-Civil War Black Codes.
[2] The codes highlighted a wide variety of crimes, such as "all offenses against Religion, Chastity, Morality and Decency.
[4] S.M Clyatt, a wealthy business owner was charged with illegally arresting two African American men to work at an employees farm.
During the spring of 1936, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union tried to organize a strike of black cotton choppers in Arkansas for better wages and job security.
[10] Sensing violence, Arkansas Governor, J. Marion Futrell set members of the National Guard and state rangers.
"[11] Strikers tried to call attention to their cause by "singing union hymns" and "urging cotton choppers in the field to join them.
"[12] As the STFU began to gain attention, white landowners attempted to silence the strikers with violence through local law enforcement and vigilante groups.
[11] As a response, the STFU distributed pamphlets that called "planters "plantation thugs" and law enforcement officers "brutal yellow curs.
"[9] To "Break the Strike", Peacher drove to the black areas of Earl and began to arrest African Americans on charges of "vagrancy".
[15] The STFU strike had caused seven of his ten workers to quit, so Peacher needed a "more reliable form of labor.
[14] Peacher reluctantly complied, holding a makeshift trial in a back room with no witnesses or testimonies from the defendants.
"[19] However, Winfield Anderson, the disabled worker who had been sitting on his porch suffered pain from being forced to use heavy machinery.
[16] Section 16 had weak security, and three of the men escaped: Jessie People, James Davis, and DeWitt Irving.
Surprisingly, a couple of men returned to his farm to work for wages[20] Paul Peacher's abuse would eventually come to an end.
[22] Paul Peacher met his downfall through Protestant Minister Dr. Sherwood Eddy, sent by STFU Leader H.L Mitchell to investigate the strike-breaking.
[23] Attempting to cover his tracks, conservative Arkansas Governor, J. Marion Futrell hoped to make the problem go away without an investigation.
[30] The story resurfaced in 2018 when retired Memphis attorney Carla Peacher-Ryan found a family connection to Paul Peacher as her great-uncle.