Legal Peonage in Florida.

A Negro stands before the county judge in a courthouse in western Florida. He is on trial for "jumping his account." At least that's what the prosecuting witness says he is charged with. The Florida statute, which legalizes peonage, does not put it that way. Instead it uses the term fraud. It was passed in 1919 during the administration of Governor Sidney J. Calls, who campaigned for his office on an anti-Catholic, anti-Negro platform. The intent of the statute is clear. It makes a failure to perform a contract of labor or service prima facie without requiring any other proof evidence of intent to defraud.