PEONAGE, a form of involuntary servitude which developed in Mexico. It prevailed extensively in Yucatan and especially in the Valle Nacional, where cheap labour was required in the cultivation of tobacco. The beginning of peonage, however, has been traced as far back as the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. Early in the history of Mexico the conquerors worked out a scheme by which the poor, especially the Indians, could be forced to do the work of the planters and mine operators. The word peon became synonymous with the English word labourer, but it later was restricted in its meaning to those labourers who were compelled to serve their creditors to pay debts which by contract they had pledged themselves to pay in labour. Although the 13th amendment and legislation of the U.S. Government prohibited any such involuntary servitude in that country, the former slave-holding States devised certain legislation, following emancipation, which might make labour compulsory. Under these State laws employers deceived ignorant men by inducing them to sign contracts for labour in payment of debts, and those who might pay fines imposed by the courts to sign other similar contracts.
For a number of years peonage continued in the United States without any one directing much attention to it because it was practised in those sequestered parts where negroes were not enlightened and where the majority of the planters raised no objection. Such practices were authorized by special laws in cer tain Southern States, and public opinion permitted the practice when there were no laws specifically providing for it. The laws
penalized failure to comply with contracts for employment, enticement of labourers from their employers, violation of a con tract with a surety who had paid the fine of a misdemeanour, acts of vagrancy, and the operations of emigrant agents. The laws of few States contained similar clauses binding those who rented land on shares.
In rural districts far removed from the populous centres the chain gang system of forced labour under the pretence of farm ing out the services of misdemeanants or penal offenders de veloped into great injustices. A number of cases were brought to light in 1902 and 1903, and the offenders were tried. The jury, however, failed to convict. The practice of leasing short term prisoners, both blacks and whites, to managers of labour camps has continued in a few of the Southern States.