Eight Years in Southern Prisons

A true account of chain-gang life in the 1920s South

First published in the 1920s, this is a gripping firsthand account of the southern prison system, told by a man who survived it from the inside. In an era when even a short sentence could become a death sentence, prisoners endured endless hard labor under the constant threat of violence, from the guards and "bosses" as well as from other convicts.

It is the brutal, rural prison world of Cool Hand Luke, except here every word is true. With ...