I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang
Encyclopedia
I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang is a book written by Robert Elliott Burns
Robert Elliott Burns
Robert Elliott Burns was a World War I veteran who gained notoriety after escaping from a Georgia chain gang and writing his memoirs exposing the cruelty and injustice of the chain gang system.-Biography:...

 in 1932 and published by Grosset & Dunlap.

The book tells the story of Burns' imprisonment on a chain gang
Chain gang
A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work, such as mining or timber collecting, as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include building roads, digging ditches or chipping stone...

 in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 in the 1920s, his subsequent escape and the furor that developed. first serialized in The story was first published in January 1932 in True Detective Mysteries magazine.
It was made into a motion picture I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is a Pre-Code crime/drama film starring Paul Muni as a wrongfully convicted convict on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. The film was written by Howard J. Green and Brown Holmes from Robert Elliott Burns's autobiography, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain...

, starring Paul Muni
Paul Muni
Paul Muni was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American stage and film actor...

. The book and movie were both credited with helping to reform deplorable conditions on Deep South chain gangs, by Governor Ellis Arnall
Ellis Arnall
Ellis Gibbs Arnall was an American politician, a progressive Democrat who served as the 69th Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1943 to 1947.-Education:...

 in 1943.

A sequel, Out of These Chains, was written by Burns' brother, Rev. Vincent Godfrey Burns
Vincent Godfrey Burns
Vincent Godfrey Burns was Poet Laureate of Maryland, from 1962 until 1979.-Life:He graduated from Penn State University in 1916, Harvard University, and Union Theological Seminary in 1922...

, in 1942.
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