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According to an newspaper article which ran in the Advocate on November 11, 1849 Angola was one of 7 plantations and was named by Isaac Franklin, a slave trader.  were used on Angola Plantation since 1883.  Acklan Plantation, owned by S. L. James leased 200 prisoner's to clear his property. 

In early 1832 the Louisiana stat legislature passed an act to begin construction of a state penitentiary in Baton Rouge.  In August of that year the state purchased approximately 8 acres from Raphael Legendre and John Buhler in the Devall Town area of Baton Rouge for $800.  The penitentiary was originally designed to house 100 convicts individually quartered in cells measuring 6 by 3.5 feet at an estimated cost of $50,0000.  However, in late 1832 another legislative act was passed that required the size of the cells to be increased to 7 by 3.5 feet and living quarters added for the prison keeper and his family. 

Charges to the penitentiary's plan increased the construction cost to $73.000.  In an effort to reduce costs, 100 prisoners sentenced to hard labor in New Orleans were sent to help with the construction.  A warden, ten guards, and various other assistants were also sent to Baton Rouge to direct and guard the prisoners in their work.

Prison Timeline

1834 - A prison store and a dwelling for the store clerks were added to the prison design.

1835 - Upper Cell House, a 3 story brick structure for the housing of convicts completed, and additional construction continued.

1841 - A fire in the north wing of the prison complex cases $10,00 in damage to the structure and its contents.  Damage so extensive that the northern win was demolished and replaced by a new and slightly smaller structure of bricks which were made on site by the prisoners.

1844 - Changes to the prison system from pressure by local merchants, the state legislature passes an act that forbade the sale of convict manufactured goods that competed directly with goods produced outside the prison. McHatton & Pratt use prisoner's for construction of the levee as a means of return on their investment. This change, combined with the expenditure of $450,00 by the state to operated the prison between 1832 and 1844 enticed the legislators to look for alternate methods of reducing the state's financial burden.  Hence, in October 1844, the state leased the prison facility and all the prisoners therein to James A. McHatton and William Pratt for a five-year period at a cost of $25,000.

1846 - 1847 A steam heated, two story brick building is erected to the east of the three original buildings.  The new structure required an enlargement of the main compound by approximately 120 feet so it could be enclosed within the walls of the yard area.  The new building housed shops for making rope on the first floor and sops for spinning warp and filling bagging on the second floor. 

1848 - Original penitentiary buildings completed.  The main compound area consisted of a U shaped, three story brick structure and a wall.  The Upper and Lower Cell Houses contained 240 and 100 cells, respectively.  Each of the brick-floored cells had a solid iron door with an iron-barred opening of less that 12 sq. inches.  Neither bed or cots were provided to the prisoners, even though the cells were poorly ventilated and virtually unheated in the winter.  8 acres added to the prison and used as a prison yard, garden and workshop area.

1849 - McHatton and Pratt's lease expires and is picked up by McHatton, Ward & Co.  The new lease was to begin in 1850 put was not ratified until 1852, and stipulated that the state was to received 25% of all annual profits or $1000 per annum, whichever was greater.

1853 - A third floor is added to the building structure and given a slate roof.

1857 - A new five-year lease signed by the state with J. M. Hart and W. S. Pike.  Apparently the state believed it had been short-changed in previous leases, for the 1857 agreement stipulated that all prison-generated profits be split evenly between the lessees and the state.

1858 - 1859  Prison compound grows to 622 male convicts, mostly whites.  The lessees employ 28 workers and 14 guards to oversee the prisoners in their work.  Income of the guards raged from $25.00 to $125.00 per month.  Total wages for the prison for January 1858 amounted to slightly less than $1000.

1862 - Convict leasing is abruptly ended by the onslaught of the Civil War.  On April 1, 1862 Hart and Pike turn the prison facility and its inmates over to the State.  Convicts were moved back to New Orleans Parish Prison, a facility that had originally been constructed in the late eighteenth century and expensive machinery installed in the penitentiary is shipped to Clinton, La. for safe storage.

 In May, 1862 the penitentiary is occupied by the 7th Vermont Regiment, and suffers a considerable degree of destruction. Although the prison was in poor repair, state prisoners were soon moved back to the facility.  By January 1867 there were 291 prisoners within the prison walls, and by June 1868 there were 291.  The typical prisoner during this period was a black male laborer under 25 years of age serving a sentence of four months to one year after being convicted of a crime involving property theft.

1868 - Leasing of convicts begins anew.  John Huger and Colonel Charles Jones  sign a lease for the penitentiary and the accompanying convicts and is vetoed by Governor Henry C. Warmoth because it provided the lessees with too much power at the expense of the rights of the convicts.

1869 - At Governor Warmoth's insistence, the Louisiana Board of Control was given power over the health and religious education of the convicts and the lease is finally legalized.  Almost immediately after the lease becomes legal, Huger and Jones sell their company to James, Buckner and Company for more than $100,000.

1870-1901   Major Samuel L. James, C. B. Buckner, and T. Bynum receive state authorization to manage the penitentiary.  The delay of the authorization did not stop them from working the convicts.  By November 1869 Major James had made almost $100,000 from $150,000 worth of unauthorized levee construction work performed by the state convicts.  During this period, living conditions within the prison system decline dramatically.  In 1873 the facility is nearly deserted for all the prisoners were busy building levees and railroads and working in agricultural field.  Convicts were worked so hard at the hands of the lessees that many died of overwork.  It has been estimated that up to 3000 prisoners died during Major James and his estates leases between 1870 and 1901.  Major James, on the other hand lived very well, leaving behind an estate valued at $2.3 million when he died in 1894. His estate's executors and Samuel L. James Jr. are the new lessee's, with more heed to the law.

1898 - A new state constitution is passed which forbids the leasing of convicts to private firms or individuals after 1901.

1901 - 1917    The state purchases 8,000 acre Angola Plantation and 2,800 acre Hope Plantation and begin transferring prison facilities. Since Angola Plantation had been owned by Major James, many of the prisoners were already stationed there, the change probably made little difference to the inmates.  There were only 123 male and 5 female prisoners on the penitentiary grounds out of 1,014 total prisoners and most of those were recent  arrivals that had not been transferred yet.  The old penitentiary continued to be used as a receiving station, hospital, clothing and shoe factory, and a place for executions until it was finally closed in 1917.

Copyright © 2007 by Karen Wise. All rights reserved.