This entire area was once multiple plantations and eventually a prison farm. Sienna Plantation in Missouri City (which used to be a sugar and cotton plantation) and Pecan Grove Plantation which is in Richmond Why was Convict Leasing Worse Than Slavery? Slaves were of value to their owner because they could sell them as merchandise. No one “owned” convicted people. They were worked and worked until they dropped in their tracks. Convict Leasing was “one of the harshest, most exploitative labor systems in American history. We all need to continue to advocate with SO JES. The voice for the voiceless. What You Do to the Least of my brothers, that you do unto me. The Battle is The Lords

Why Convict Leasing Was Worse Than Slavery

"Human lives were not of value. Nobody was relieved until he dropped in his tracks. The guards often said the men did not cost them any money and the miles did. That's why there was more sympathy for the mules than for the men."

Bill Mills

Convict Leasing was "one of the harshest, most exploitative labor systems in American history. Convict leasing, across state lines, bound the South together for more than half a century in reliance on an institution of almost unrelieved brutality.

Matthew J. Mancini

The American public has ignored the troubling history of Southern punishment. For nearly a century after the abolition of slavery, convicts labored in the South's mines, railroad camps, brickyards, turpentine farms and then road gangs, under abject conditions... and the vast majority of these prisoners were African Americans. The convict-lease and chain gang allowed a New South to rise while preserving white supremacy.

Alex Lichtenstein

The brutal forms of physical punishment employed against "prisoners" in 1910 were the same as those used against "slaves" in 1840.

Douglas A. Blackmon

Educate. Honor. Heal. The Society of Justice & Equality for the People of Sugar Land (S.O.J.E.S.) is an independent, non-profit community organization dedicated to historic preservation and educating the community about the contributions of African Americans in the creation and progression of Sugar Land and Fort Bend County, Texas. This includes commemorating and memorializing the Sugar Land 95. sojesjustice.org