Editor's Note: This is the third in a four-part series about life on Seattle's chain gangs. Read parts one and two, Life on a Seattle chain gang and Life in an early Seattle jail here.
As the new century moved on, Seattle entered the so-called Progressive era, a time of general reforms and political upheaval. The chain gang was still a fixture, but anti-gang voices began to be heard more. In general, police and prison reform moved to the front burner of civic debate.
For one thing, the deplorable jail conditions and treatment of prisoners became more public. A situation that was already toxic in 1900 was even worse by 1907. Another factor was a growing sense that chain gang punishments were not being applied fairly and that police and judges were showing both bias and favoritism. An editorial in the Seattle Republican, a newspaper run by the crusading African American couple Horace and Susie Revels Cayton, argued that the chain gang was punishment for men who had committed nothing other than "the atrocious crime of being poor."
