Thomas Green Clemson, a statesman and engineer, founded Clemson in 1889 to be an agricultural college. Unknown to many, the bequest from Clemson included a clause allowing the leasing of convict labor.
Convict labor leasing was practiced throughout the South after Reconstruction, where the states sourced revenue from “leasing” out convicts to companies, public institutions and individuals. In the wake of the 13th Amendment, slavery was no longer legal “except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
These convictions were often not racially proportionate. Once convicted, individuals were at the whim of the state, which leased them out to perform hard manual labor, according to Rhondda Robinson Thomas, Calhoun Lemon professor of literature at Clemson.
At the founding of Clemson’s agricultural college, there were 50 convict laborers on campus.
During the nearly 25 years the convict leasing system operated at Clemson, there were periods when 150-200 convict laborers were on campus at once.
Current statistics suggest that approximately 600 convict laborers were leased to the University over the course of the system, but this number is ever-increasing. More and more names are being found and recorded, according to Thomas.
The youngest laborer was a 14-year-old boy convicted of stealing $4.70 in bills and coins from a store. The oldest on record was a 67-year-old man, and most laborers were under 25.
The laborers were primarily Black. In the initial request for convict laborers, Clemson’s board of trustees requested a workforce of Black prisoners, but 12 of the initial 50 leased were white.
Thomas heads the Call My Name project at Clemson, investigating, researching and documenting the University’s relationship with its own history.
The project is dedicated to “honoring the legacy of seven generations of people of African descent” who contributed to Clemson’s history. Thomas herself, conducting the archival research, works across the state to record and document the names of these individuals and their stories.
Some of the most difficult or surprising discoveries Thomas has made over the last 15 years of her research were the ages of the laborers. In her research, she found records of a young teenager from Spartanburg County, where Thomas herself grew up.
“You know, he was the first teenager that I saw … I think, for me, that was the sobering moment of this. That I knew these boys were building a college that they couldn’t attend,” Thomas told The Tiger.
“They’re building these beautiful buildings that they know they’ll never enter as a student.”
The buildings constructed by convict laborers include numerous structures that no longer exist today but were part of the original campus.
Prominent structures such as Sikes Hall, Tillman and Hardin Hall still stand as reminders of the University’s checkered past.
The construction projects were not limited to just academic buildings, though. The convict laborers also built one of the Dikes, a symbol of the controversial agreement the University made to prevent flooding of part of the campus during the construction of the Hartwell Dam.
When asked about the responsibility that comes with sharing the stories of these convict laborers, Thomas emphasized the importance of telling their stories and “calling” them by name, hence the title of the project.
“We should acknowledge those whose names are not called but whose labor was essential for the establishment of a college that became Clemson University,” she said.
Clemson College, the title the University went by at the time, did not have the funds to hire a full-time professional construction crew to clear the land, build the academic buildings and other buildings on campus. Thomas noted that without the convict laborers, Clemson’s campus would not be what it is today.
Today, Thomas is continuing to provide campus tours. She gives presentations at conferences, posts on the Instagram account @callmyname_clemson and is looking to begin a creative inquiry on campus in the fall 2026 semester.
