Richmond, Texas September 9, 1913 ― The three guards who allowed eight prisoners to suffocate in the Dark Cell at the Harlem Prison Farm on September 6 were released today by the Justice of the Peace after an all-day hearing into the deaths.
The prisoners at the Harlem Prison Farm began the day of September 6 knowing it was going to be hot. They also knew they were just basically slaves picking the cotton grown at the farm, so they decided to do a work slowdown. Maybe if it was somewhere other than Texas this might have made a difference but the dozen men picking slow were all gathered up. They were told they were going to be punished for picking to slow.
So, shotguns aimed at them the 12 men were forced into the “Dark Cell”. This was a steel box (9 x 7 x 7 ft, and about 3 ft underground) and made to help control inmates and be a deterrent to this kind of behavior. However, it wasn’t made for 12 adult bodies.
So underground, basically being slowly cooked alive the men tried to find a way to survive. After a couple of hours, the men started screaming but were told to shut up, As hours passed some of the men tried to tell the guards above, they were dying.
But the guards were not necessarily compassionate men. Even though the men were all barely more than boys, the oldest was 19. They all were in for petty crimes too with sentences of two to five years. Regardless, Sargent S.J. Wheeler and Guards S.M Fain and H.H. Stewart just continued to listen to the men adding that, "You'll wish you were dead if you don’t make less noise.” Of course, the night went on there was much less noise
When morning came and the men were ordered free the guards had to force the cell open. Inside they found four men sitting, kneeling near three pipes that had been put into the cell to provide air. They found eight of the boys had died from asphyxiation.
While the story was carried in newspapers across Texas and in some in Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma there was no large national outcry. Of course, the deaths were not all that remarkable for either prison inmates or Black men in the era.
Still there was an investigation, led by Assistant Attorney General Clyde B. Sweeten and members of the state board of prisons. At a hearing the four surviving prisoners did testify. They talked about how they received water just twice at noon and then at 3:00 p.m... The Bend County Health Officer Dr. J.M. O'Farrell stated on the stand that he felt all the men were dead before midnight based on the early signs of decomposition when he examined the bodies.
O'Farrell also said under oath that this cell was just designed to kill. “I don’t think there’s chance in the world to get practical replenishment of air to sustain life,” O'Farrell said. “What air you go in there with you live on, if that room had been ten times bigger with that ventilation system, I don’t think even one man would last 12 hours.”
At the hearing for the three guards' letters from various inspectors were added to the evidence stating that the Dark Cell was deficient in ventilation. The four surviving witnesses also stated that even after this most prisoners, including three of them would choose the dark cell over a whipping. At the closing of the hearing 17 witnesses had testified. Justice of the Peace H. M. Fenn who was the official at the hearing for the three guards gave his official opinion freeing the three mean and rejecting all charges. He said they were not responsible for the conditions of the cell and had previously had strong reputations.
The victims of this crime against humanity were Tom Reed,
Calvin Jefferson, Will Campbell, Jesse Thompson, Robert Carpenter, Bill Tinner, Miles Berry, Carlton Vance.
No one suffered consequences for the death of the eight young men. While testimony was taken that the Dark Cell was not safe of healthy no reforms were made to the use at any of the prisons in Texas. Harlem Prison Farm went on as it was connected to the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio railroad shipping vegetable across Texas. In the 1950s the prison was renamed Jester State Prison Farm after Texas Governor Bueford H. Jester.
The prisoners at the Harlem Prison Farm didn’t become martyrs. There is no memorial marker at the Jester State Prison Farm. There are no entries for the “Sugarland Eight” in narratives of the Civil Rights Movement or record of Jim Crow deaths.
Sources:
Telling Something Else: Documentary Beyond (Hi)story by Alex Johnston from volume five of Worlds Records Journal
The Houston Chronicle Sep. 9, 1913, and Sep 11, 1913
Jester State Prison Farm: Texas State Historical Association website
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