Convict Camp in The Hamlet (Location)

The "south Mississippi convict camp" (244) where Mink Snopes met the woman who became his wife is "a tract of wildcatted virgin timber" being logged (262). The convict labor system was widespread in the South, and in some ways perpetuated the system of slavery. As the novel's narrator puts it, the white man who runs the camp "through political influence or bribery or whatever got his convict labor from the State for the price of their board and keep" (262); the prisoners themselves were not compensated for their work. This location also includes the "nearest county seat" where Mink gets married (264).