Two years ago, about this time of year, I spent a week of bicycling in the vicinity of Montgomery, Alabama. This was probably the only time a prison was one of my destinations.
The Julia Tutwiler prison is just north of Wetumpka, on US-231. It’s where Nate Shaw (Ned Cobb) of “All God’s Dangers” spent most of the prison term he got for defending his property rights back in 1932. The Julia Tutwiler prison was being converted to a women’s prison when he served here, and that’s what it is now.
An article in the weekend Wall Street Journal about “A different kind of slavery” reminded me of it. Ned Cobb’s time in prison does not sound as difficult as what is described in the article, but he did work on convict labor crews in the vicinity of this prison and elsewhere. He was given easier work than many, as he was older than most prisoners. He was also allowed to go home to his family on weekends, but his time in prison was destructive of family life, just the same.
[...] leaving Hickory Ground, I rode north to the Julia Tutwiler prison (which I wrote about here and here), then continued north along US-231 before heading off the highway toward the [...]
[...] This is the courthouse building that can be scene from the row of rocking chairs. It’s where Nate Shaw/Ned Cobb of “All God’s Dangers” was put on trial in the early 1930s. His story was one of two historical episodes that got me on a bicycle tour to this part of Alabama. Cobb/Shaw had used a gun to try to defend his private property rights at his home several miles south of Dadeville. Ironically, it was the American Communist Party, not usually thought of as a defender of property rights, that provided a defense lawyer for him. It also provided his wife with a small monthly payment so she could make ends meet while her husband was in prison. A few days before my visit to Dadeville I had ridden past the prison where he spent most of his 12-year sentence. Photos of that ride are here. [...]