when she sold them all in 1880 to Samuel Lawrence James, the former CSA officer. The Angola plantation was named for the country on the west coast of Southern Africa from which many of its slaves had come. It contained a building called the Old Slave Quarters. Under the convict lease system, Major James ran his vast plantation using convicts leased from the state as his workers. He was responsible for their room and board, and had virtually total authority over them. With the incentive to earn money from prisoners, the state passed laws directed at African Americans, requiring payment of minor fees and fines as punishment for infractions. Cash-poor men in the agricultural economy were forced into jail and convict labor. Such convicts were frequently abused, underfed, and subject to unregulated violence. The state exercised little oversight of conditions. Prisoners were often worked to death under harsh conditions. James died in 1894. 20th century operations The Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections says that this facility opened as a state prison in 1901. The state began transferring prison facilities out of the old penitentiary into Angola. The old penitentiary continued to be used as a receiving station, hospital, clothing and shoe factory, and place for executions until it finally closed in 1917. The history and archaeology of the old penitentiary provide insights into the structures and daily life of inmates at the time. Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that Angola was "probably as close to slavery as any person could come in 1930." Hardened criminals broke down upon being notified that they were being sent to Angola. White-black racial tensions in the society were expressed at the prison, adding to the violence: each year one in every ten inmates were stabbed. Wolfe and Lornell said that the staff, consisting of 90 people, "ran the prison like it was a private fiefdom." The two authors said that prisoners were viewed as niggers' of the lowest order". The state did not appropriate many funds for the operation of Angola, and saved money by trying to decrease costs. Much of the remaining money ended up in the operations of other state projects; Wolfe and Lornell said that the re-appropriation of funds occurred "mysteriously". In 1935, remains of a Native American individual were taken from Angola and were donated to the Louisiana State