Darkness in Dixie
Bauer, Rob
In 1899, orphan Clarence Duval becomes part of the South’s prison labor system. He’s arrested for a crime he never committed while in search of his long-lost father. The local judge is on the payroll of a Boston company to convict African Americans like Clarence of nonexistent crimes, then sentence them to prison labor.
Sent to the forests of Florida, Clarence and his fellow convicts must find a way to escape their prison camp before disease, hunger, unending work, and sadistic guards can kill them. Meanwhile, the judge’s enemies plot to bring him down and expose his crimes, but will they be fast enough to save Clarence and the other prisoners?
Don’t miss the chance to learn the hidden story of one of the darkest episodes in American history: the cruel exploitation of African Americans in the prison labor system of the South. It’s hard to believe this happened in the United States, but it did. This is its story.