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…All of these accomplishments are impressive and don’t even begin to cover her contributions to women’s and civil rights. However, what has always captured my attention and garnered my deepest respect is the legacy of Ms. Terrell’s advocacy against the convict lease system. In 1907, she published an important article titled “Peonage in the United States: The Convict Lease System and the Chain Gangs” in a journal called “The Nineteeth Century.” In the essay, she suggests that leasing is a “modern regime of slavery.” She contends that Georgia was the worst culprit in terms of the brutality and violence of its lease system. She repeatedly cites Colonel Alton’s Byrd’s investigation of the Georgia Convict Camps. It’s much better to read her own words than my interpretation of them so I offer some excerpts from her essay. She opens with these words: