Very Rare, Outlawed Antique Mississippi Chain Gang Shackles
HISTORICAL - Jail - Prison
Item - Patented “Leg Breaker” Mississippi Chain Gand Shackles
Person - Used for dangerous and known “runners” forced into hard labor in Mississippi prisons on road crews or yards.
Event - Cruel Incaceration and Hard Labor In Prison
Age - OLD
Historical - These are patented shackles outlawed now. They are designed to cripple a, "runner." They can break legs and cause hard falls. The faster a prisoner ran the more violent the action of the solid steel weight which would violently spin, pivot and take the prisoner down. As the Borg said, "Resistance is futile." These were used on some of the most violent prisoners in the Mississippi Delta used in the, Convict Lease System," where prisoners were framed out for labor on farms and plantations. Prior to 1950 no executions were allowed at the notorious Parchman Prison in Sunflower County because local residents did not want the stigma of being "The Death County."
So prisoners were forced to be maintained, housed and executed across the state in the county region where the crime was committed. This meant that local law enforcement without the benefit of prison structures had highly dangerous criminals in less secure and lesser staffed jails so restraints were required for control of these prisoners during any form of transport. County jails around the state were forced to house and maintain the most violent criminals in Mississippi prior to execution. These would have been used during transport of known, "runners," who worked there road or farm crews. The chain was short to prevent prisoners from being able to pick up the very heavy weight and running. Whereas virtually all road crew and farm, "bosses," were on horseback, armed with shotguns and redbone coonhounds kept handy an escape in these without an army to get you out would have been virtually impossible.
Signed - No writing or markings. In 2010 we located a reference to the patent but will require research. We found it within an antique book on jail/prison restraint devices which outlined the patent and its unique spinning action as a "runner,' tried to flee. We have been unable to find the reference again nor another pair for sale anywhere.
Numbers / Marks - None
Verified - Purchased from private collection Holly Springs, Mississippi. Obviously had heavy usage.
NOTES - This is a very rare antique, prisoner (road/field crew) restraint. Different from a ball and chain and far more dangerous due to the flying/spinning, cylindrical leg breaker design. If a prisoner began to run the solid iron, very heavy, cylinder would begin to bounce and spin wildly propelling itself towards the prisoners legs. The faster a prisoner ran the cylinder responded by spinning faster, more violently and its unique design to fly towards the prisoners legs was quite capable of fracturing the bones in one or both legs or cause multiple compound bone fractures. These are rare and considered cruel and unusual punishment and are outlawed in prisons in the USA now. These were obtained from a private collection in Holly Springs Mississippi. They are a sad and cruel testament to early American incarceration devices. It is believed as per verbal tales of their origin that they likely entered the system through Parchment Prison and were on loan to jails or retained in the Holly Springs and Oxford, Mississippi areas housing prisoners pending execution, and ended their career in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
