"A bath? Are we really allowed to wash today?" 

For once  the convicts are seen smiling, and are chatting to each other in a girlish way.
 

All extept one.  One girl is not going to the river. 
Laura talked back to an overseer yesterday. 
After receiving a heavy lashing she was hung by her thumbs, where she will stay hanging all day. 
 

For once the overseer didn´t have to urge the slave workers to run faster.  The prospect of having a bath and be able to wash some of the dirt of their bodies, made the girls go the three and a half miles to the river in record time. 

"Come on - Strip off your dresses ! 
None of you have anything I haven´t seen before." 

Several of the convicts are from good families and most of them are virgins.  They are only here because of debts, or have simply been kidnappet as cheap labours while traveling alone through the county.  Showing their naked bodies before a man, is still very unnatural for them. 
 

"Don´t try to swim over to the other bank ! 
I will shoot any one who tries, 
without further warning."
 

Oh - It is good to get some of all that dirt washed off ! 
But swimming across the river?  Even if he was not there with his rifle, it would be impossible with these heavy leg irons.
 

"Come up all of you !  This is enough bathing for today.   You are clean enough now."
 

"Get finished girl ! 
There is a 2 hours march to the mayor´s farm, and there are a lot of work, for you to do there before evening."
  

"Now the next five girls -
 Get into the water and get yoursselfs cleaned up in a hurry, so we can all get going. 
The major don´t like to wait for his labours." 
 

Linda pulls of her sweaty frock. 
She is in a better mood today, than she has been at any time durring the last 6 months.  Not since she got the careless idea to travel home alone from college to spend Christmass with her parents.  This might be her big chance.  The river is not that wide, and the state border is only a few miles away on the other side. 
 

"Hey - Come Lisa. 
 Lets get into the water, 
and see who can swim fastest."

"What´s she so happy about? 
They can´t swim with those heavy irons"
 
Irina - a Russian immigrant now serving a life sentence working of debts for her family, says for herself . 
 
"I better keep an eye on them."

 

"Lisa, is he looking this way?" 

"No - But please don´t try.  
We can´t get away from here!"

But Linda knows, she has to try now, even it is nearly impossible to swim with the leg irons, if she shall ever have any chance to regain her freedom. 

She is two times diving champion at college, but the bad prison food and harsh conditions at the farm, have already weakened her body. She knows, if she waits for the next time, the are allowed to bath in the river, she will have become to weak to swim so fare.   

Totally exhausted Linda tries to climp up slippery mud on the other bank. 
  

"Look Master!" Irina calls from down the river. 
"Look over at the other side! 
She is trying to escape!" 
 

BANG - Owww---
 

"Stupid girl! Now we have to do your work to." 
Irina thinks.
 Good she didn´t get away, or we had all been punish. 
  

"Oh - oh!  The boss is going to town today!"
 

This means that they are left alone 
with Bart and Rory all day. 
All the slaves know, what that means. 
 

"Get those clothes off, fat bitch!" 
 

There is a nervous atmosphere among the girls, 
as they strip.  Usually it is a cheerful event, when they seldom are allowed a bath in the river, 
but not together with Bart and Rory. 
Who will they pick this time? 
 

One by one, the slaves strips and goes into the water. 
 

Kathy unties the string holding up her chains. 
 

She quickly peels off her dress, 
and turns to go into the water. 
 

"Hey - You!  Come here - You better go with us!"
 

"Why do they never pick me?" 
Sara says with a low voice. 
 

"I heard you! - How could you ever belive, 
they would be interested in your fat Jewish arse? 
 We are plenty of white women here!" 
 

Fat Jewish arse! - It´s so unfare! 
My behind is not fat. 
It´s only because I´am Jewish, they never picks me! 
 

The break isn´t long. 
After only half an hour, 
the girls are orderet to dress. 

Work is waiting. 
 

"Worthless bitch.  You were no good! 
I shall see to, you will never spoil my day again." 
 

"You will hang here all night, 
and tomorrow you will go to the mine. 
We can´t risk having any pregnant 
white sluts out here!" 
 

"You better be quiet about today! 
If you say anything, you will get more of this." 
 

"Get in slut! - You know, what will happen, 
if you say anything to anybody!" 
 

The field slaves soon falls asleep. 
It has only been just another day at the farm. 
No one will tell the boss or anyone, what happened today.  It´s forbidden to exploit the convicts sexualy, but who will believe a slave, and to tell will only mean more pain and punishments for them all. 
Sara is the last of them, to fall into sleep. 
Maybe she is a bit jealous? 
 

Early the next morning work continues. 
That Kathy is gone, dosn´t surprise the field labors. 
It´s not uncommon, a girl disappears. 
Usually to some place, they call the Mine. 
The only thing, that bothers them, is that they have to do her work to, until a new slave arrives. 
Hope it will not be long! 
 

Very early the next morning the still dead tired field slaves are aroused to a new day of toil. 
  

But this morning there is good news ! 

They all chear up, when they hear, that durring the night not only a single girl, but a whole family has been arrested by the Sheriff, and 3 of them have been send here as a replacement for Kathy, so now they will not have to do extra work.  
 

The walk to the farm which has leased them 
this month takes almost 2 hours. 
 

As soon as the slaves are loosened from the transport chain they begine to work. 
 

Susan looks over the endless dry field. 

"Arh - Ten long hours before we can go home again. 
But today we will be plenty of workers, even the new ones have to learn." 
 

"Please ! - This is a terrible mistake ! 
We are not prostitutes, and where is my mother?" 
 
The Sheriff had late in the evening received the message, that a family consisting of 4 females with no male accompany, were among the passengers on the night  train passing through to New York.  

When the train stopped at midtnight at the local station to get new supplies of coal and water, some of the Sheriff´s men entered the sleeping wagon.  

The conductor received a nice reward, and none of the other passengers seamed to have noticed anything. 
 

"Shut up - and start working! 

There is no mistake in you being here. 
And for your mother she has been brought to  a nice place which is called the Mine. 

If you and your two younger twin sisters are good girls and work very hard, you might also be allowed to go there at fall, when the harvest is over." 
 

At long last it is noon. 
This means an half an hour rest, 
to get back the breath and a chance to 
attend the inevitable wounds. 
 

For those who are behind, 
there are no rest. 

"Continue working, lazy bitch !
You better catch up with the others."
 

The lucky ones sits or lie down as 
comfortable as it is possible on the hard dirt
under the hot sun. 

In half an hour work will continue, 
and there are no more breacks before evening. 
 

Lorna and Kathleen are rather new in the fields. 
They had been best friends since school, and after they both had married, they had been neighbours. 
Now fate seams to have decided, that they also shall spend their lives together in chains. 

Both Lorna´s and Kathleen´s husbands had begune to gamble, and after a poker game with the sheriff, they where both in great debts. 
 

The breack is over and work continues. 
 

"Oh - It´s so hot ! 
And this used dress smells from it´s former owner. 
But at least me and Kathleen don´t have to worry 
about our husbands.   Now they are out of debts, they are free to remarry and get on with their lives." 

As the good wifes Lorna and Kathleen are, they know it is their duty to take over their husbands debts. 

Even they find their new lives very hard, none of them dreams of escaping.
 

If only all slaves were so easy
as Lorna and Kathleen ! 

 But no !
The overseer is more and more fed up with one. 
 It is 19 year old Sylvia.  She has been nothing but trouble, since she was brought here after been arrested on a highway motel, while passing through the county alone in her car. 

She has never worked as hard as the others, and even she has been repeatly seriously beaten and punished, she still cares so much about her appearance, that she always wear a pice of cloths around her head, so the sun shall not burn her face or ruin her fine hair. 

She truely believes, it is a fault she is here, and 
that someone soon will find out and rescue her. 
 

"Oh no!  Not again - That lazy pice of shit!" 
 

"I shall teach you ! 
20 strocks now and 20 more when 
we get home." 
 

"Are you never going to learn? 
You are here for life and the only thing 
that can keep you alive is if you work very hard." 
 

"Now get up and continue working!
I shall see to, you will not get as much as a seconds breack from now on !" 

 None of the other women feels any pity 
for Sylvia.  They also thinks she is lazy 
and are tirred of having to do her work too. 
 

At long last the sun sets and the women can see 
an end of one more day of work. 
 

Now the slaves can walk home to their hut, 
where they can get something to eat and get 
a nights rest.  Soon the sun will rise again, 
and another day of endless work will begine.