Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After the Civil War, a new form of slavery took hold in the US and lasted more than 60 years. Associated Press reporters Margie Mason and Robin McDowell investigate the chilling history of how Southern states imprisoned mainly Black men, often for minor crimes, and then leased them out to private companies – for years, even decades, at a time. The team talks with the descendant of a man imprisoned in the Lone Rock stockade in Tennessee nearly 140 years ago, where people as young as 12 worked under subhuman conditions in coal mines and inferno-like ovens used to produce iron. This system of forced prison labor enriched the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad company – at the cost of prisoners’ lives.
At the state park that sits on the former site of the Lone Rock stockade, relics from the hellish prison are buried beneath the soil. Archeologist Camille Westmont has found thousands of artifacts, such as utensils and the plates prisoners ate off. She has also created a database listing the names of those sent to Lone Rock. A team of volunteers are helping her, including a woman reckoning with her own ancestor’s involvement in this corrupt system and the wealth her family benefited from.
The United States Steel Corporation helped build bridges, railroads and towering skyscrapers across America. But the company also relied on forced prison labor. After U.S. Steel took over Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad in 1907, the industrial giant used prison labor for at least five years. During that time, more than 100 men died while working in their massive coal mining operation in Alabama. U.S. Steel has misrepresented this dark chapter of its history. And it has never apologized for its use of forced labor or the lives lost.The reporters push the company to answer questions about its past and engage with communities near the former mines.
Support Reveal’s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/weekly
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, this is Al, and I'm sure it is no surprise to you that President Trump doesn't like us very much. |
| 0:06.7 | He called the press the enemy of the people. |
| 0:09.0 | Credential journalists have been banned from press briefings just for asking tough questions. |
| 0:14.3 | Trump personally sued news networks demanding billions. |
| 0:18.6 | And now, at his urging, Congress has voted to gut all federal funding for |
| 0:23.7 | public broadcasting. And I think I know why. I think we all do. It's because real journalism |
| 0:28.7 | brings sunlight, scrutiny, accountability. When power feels threatened, it lashes out. And that tells you |
| 0:36.0 | just how vital independent reporting is right now. |
| 0:40.0 | Here it reveal, we don't answer to billionaires, or politicians, or special interests. |
| 0:45.4 | We only answer to you, our listeners, but we can't do this alone. |
| 0:50.2 | Stand with us. Support fearless independent journalism that refuses to back down. Donate today. |
| 0:57.6 | Just visit revealnews.org slash fearless. Again, that's revealnews.org slash fearless. |
| 1:04.9 | Thanks. |
| 1:08.3 | From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. |
| 1:13.2 | I'm Al Letson. |
| 1:17.2 | Hello? |
| 1:18.4 | This past summer, reporter Margie Mason got on the phone with a man in Tennessee. |
| 1:23.6 | Let me just tell you who I am. |
| 1:24.9 | I'm a reporter at the Associated Press, and I have been working on a project in Tennessee. |
| 1:32.8 | She's talking to Jerry Whedon. He's a pastor in the town of Murfreesboro, southeast of Nashville. |
| 1:39.7 | Margie and her reporting partner, Rob McDowell, found him after months of research. |
| 1:45.4 | They're convinced Jerry is the descendant of a black man born around the time of the Civil |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.