CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 7 
then had been capitally punished, should thereafter be punished by 
labor 'publicly and disgracefully imposed.' Under this law the 
convicts were employed in cleaning streets, repairing roads, etc., 
their heads were shaved, and they were clothed in a coarse uniform." 1 
But as will be noted, the motive which inspired this early experi- 
ment in convict road building in the United States was wrong, and 
its effect is best described in the words of " a most respectable eye- 
witness," as reported by William Crawford, esq., in his report 
"to Lord Viscount Duncannon, His Majesty's principal secretary of 
state for the home department" in 1834 on "The Penitentiaries of 
the United States." He said: 
The directions of the law of 1786 were soon found to be productive of the greatest 
evils, and had a very opposite effect from what was contemplated by the framers of the 
law. The disorder in society, the robberies, the burglaries, breaches of prison, alarms 
in town and country, the drunkenness, profanity, and indecencies of the prisoners in 
the streets, must be in the memory of most. With these disorders the number of crimi- 
nals increased to such a degree as to alarm the community with fears that it would be 
impossible to find a place either large or strong enough to hold them. The severity of 
the law and the disgraceful manner of executing it led to a proportionate degree of 
depravity and insensibility and every spark of morality appeared to be destroyed. 
For these reasons the law of 1786 was repealed and in 1790 the 
first penitentiary in the United States was constructed in Philadel- 
phia. All convict labor in the State of Pennsylvania was thereafter 
performed within its walls. 
Following this example penitentiaries were established in rapid 
succession in Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Ver- 
mont, Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio, New Jersey, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Maine, District of Columbia, Indiana, Georgia, and Illinois. 
In 1834 when William Crawford, esq., made his report to Lord Vis- 
count Duncannon, the following were still without them : The States 
of Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri, and the Territories of Florida, 
Michigan, and Arkansas. 
From the above classification it will appear that, in general, the 
Northern and Eastern States were provided early with penitentiaries, 
whereas the Southern and Western States had no such institutions. 
The same classification may be made in respect to the system of labor 
provided for the employment of the convicts. Wliereas the Northern 
and Eastern States adopted the contract and State-account' systems 
and employed their prisoners in indoor workshops, the practice of 
leasing convicts to private persons for outdoor work was followed in 
the South and West practically from the foundation of the Republic. 
The reasons for these early differences are readily seen in the differ- 
ent conditions and environment of the two sections — North and 
1 Report of the Commissioners on Penal Code of Pennsylvania, p. 13. 
