Peonage

While the principal sources of the practice of peonage are the laws just referred to, yet it has existed and does exist without law. The condition of the colored man in this country is practically that of an outlaw. He is scarcely thought of as having rights. He is distinctly told not to insist upon his rights, but to do his duty; that rights will come as the result of duty well performed. This is in effect to say the laws, the customs, the institutions, which protect and defend other men are not to be invoked by the Negro when in his opinion he needs them. A large group of men who are looked upon after this fashion is at the mercy of any group of men who enjoy in full vigor all that the institutions and government of their country stand for. Therefore, it is not unusual to find that, without any law at all, large numbers of laborers are restrained of their liberty in quarte