BY ROBIN MIMNA
Henry Flagler once declared that he preferred to be his own tyrant rather than let someone else oppress him. True to his word, Flagler was a formidable and ruthless economic tyrant.
Flagler is a celebrated entrepreneur and key architect of modern Florida. He is best known for expanding the Florida East Coast Railway. Flagler’s business empire was vast, encompassing railroads, real estate, and hospitality. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many industrialists used convict labor to build grand projects. This practice, while legal, exploited vulnerable populations and perpetuated systemic injustices.
In “The Making of Florida’s ‘Criminal Class’: Race, Modernity, and the Convict Leasing Program, 1877-1919”, Connor Donegan examines how Florida’s convict leasing system reinforced racial hierarchies in the post-Reconstruction era.
The system disproportionately targeted African Americans, exploiting their labor and subjecting them to harsh prison sentences, which deepened economic inequality. Donegan highlights the brutal conditions convict laborers endured — suffering from physical abuse, lack of basic necessities, and frequent deaths due to disease, accidents and exhaustion.
This system not only perpetuated racial oppression but also influenced views on race and crime in Florida, with prominent figures like Henry Flagler relying heavily on African American labor for major projects like railroad construction.
In their business dealings and speeches, Flagler and his associates rarely, if ever, mentioned using convict labor, instead emphasizing the successes of their investments. When the railroad finally reached Volusia County in 1887, Helen DeLand, in her book The Story of DeLand and Lake Helen, recalled her father’s joy. Henry DeLand stepped onto the rail line, waved his hat, and shouted, “Hurrah!”
A sweatbox at Raiford Prison (now called Florida State Prison)
circa 1957.
To maintain this façade, Flagler used his wealth and influence to silence journalists who tried to expose his labor practices. In their Washington Post article “How Slave Labor Built the State of Florida – Decades After the Civil War,” Bryan Bowman and Kathy Forde noted that Flagler not only whitewashed public knowledge about convict labor but also, “by extension, the historical record itself.”
You can still see the effects of this whitewashing today. On the Henry Flagler Museum website, you will find a timeline of his achievements. “Flagler built…,” or “employed thousands of laborers” is the only language you will find regarding the type of labor he used.
Flagler College’s website also excludes any influence Flagler had on Florida’s labor structure overall but praises his significant contributions to Florida’s history.
Flagler’s prosperity in Florida came at a high human cost. Enslaved people built the railways that fueled the state’s boom. Wealthy tourists flocked to luxurious hotels built by men who toiled under the harshest conditions, often without hope of escape.
Today, Florida celebrates its growth and Flagler’s role in it. But we must remember that we cannot divorce our story from his exploitation of the powerless, no matter how much his rose-colored version of old Florida appeals to us.
