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I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!
I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! is the amazing true story of one man's search for meaning, fall from grace, and eventual victory over injustice.
In 1921, Robert E. Burns was a shell-shocked and penniless First World War veteran who found himself at the mercy of Georgia's barbaric penal system when he fell in with a gang of petty thieves. Sentenced to six to ten years' hard labor for his part in a robbery that netted less than $6.00, Burns was shackled to a county chain gang. After four months of backbreaking work, he made a daring escape, dodging shotgun blasts, racing through swamps, and eluding bloodhounds on his way north.
For seven years Burns lived as a free man. He married and became a prosperous Chicago businessman and publisher. When he fell in love with another woman, however, his jealous wife turned him in to the police, who arrested him as a fugitive from justice. Although he was promised lenient treatment and a quick pardon, he was back on a chain gang within a month. Undaunted, Burns did the impossible and escaped a second time, this time to New Jersey. He was still a hunted man living in hiding when this book was first published in 1932.
The book and its movie version, nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1933, shocked the world by exposing Georgia's brutal treatment of prisoners. I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! is a daring and heartbreaking book, an odyssey of misfortune, love, betrayal, adventure, and, above all, the unshakable courage and inner strength of the fugitive himself.
In 1921, Robert E. Burns was a shell-shocked and penniless First World War veteran who found himself at the mercy of Georgia's barbaric penal system when he fell in with a gang of petty thieves. Sentenced to six to ten years' hard labor for his part in a robbery that netted less than $6.00, Burns was shackled to a county chain gang. After four months of backbreaking work, he made a daring escape, dodging shotgun blasts, racing through swamps, and eluding bloodhounds on his way north.
For seven years Burns lived as a free man. He married and became a prosperous Chicago businessman and publisher. When he fell in love with another woman, however, his jealous wife turned him in to the police, who arrested him as a fugitive from justice. Although he was promised lenient treatment and a quick pardon, he was back on a chain gang within a month. Undaunted, Burns did the impossible and escaped a second time, this time to New Jersey. He was still a hunted man living in hiding when this book was first published in 1932.
The book and its movie version, nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1933, shocked the world by exposing Georgia's brutal treatment of prisoners. I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! is a daring and heartbreaking book, an odyssey of misfortune, love, betrayal, adventure, and, above all, the unshakable courage and inner strength of the fugitive himself.
257 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
31 people are currently reading
402 people want to read
About the author
Robert Elliott Burns
6 books1 followerRobert 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.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 2, 2019
3.5 stars
I have had this book on my TBR list for years. No library in my system had the book. I quite by accident came upon the book and immediately secured it.
This is the biographical memoir of Robert Elliott Burns. A young factory worker who wanted to defend his country. He fought in World War 1 heroically. He was given back his factory job when he returned home, but knew he was destined for a better career. Taking off to seek his fortune, he, like all others, found nothing but depression and 'Not Hiring' signs. Only wanting a hamburger, he was caught in a robbery and hauled away. Convicted, he was put on a Georgia chain gang.
Finding a way to escape, Burns changed his name and found employment. He worked his way up and became quite an upstanding engineer and highly regarded citizen. However a cheating woman was his downfall and the FBI reclaimed him with a false promise. He willingly went back to Georgia and was then denied the pardon he had been promised, denied again and again. He escaped again and stayed on the run. His life was then reduced to the irony of one who robbed to stay alive.
I have had this book on my TBR list for years. No library in my system had the book. I quite by accident came upon the book and immediately secured it.
This is the biographical memoir of Robert Elliott Burns. A young factory worker who wanted to defend his country. He fought in World War 1 heroically. He was given back his factory job when he returned home, but knew he was destined for a better career. Taking off to seek his fortune, he, like all others, found nothing but depression and 'Not Hiring' signs. Only wanting a hamburger, he was caught in a robbery and hauled away. Convicted, he was put on a Georgia chain gang.
Finding a way to escape, Burns changed his name and found employment. He worked his way up and became quite an upstanding engineer and highly regarded citizen. However a cheating woman was his downfall and the FBI reclaimed him with a false promise. He willingly went back to Georgia and was then denied the pardon he had been promised, denied again and again. He escaped again and stayed on the run. His life was then reduced to the irony of one who robbed to stay alive.
December 23, 2024
4.5/5
”I want the world to get this straight right here. While Georgia may say that I escaped from justice, I emphatically state that I am convinced that l escaped from injustice, intolerance and the vengeance of a society that is a hundred years behind the times. Let the reader decide which is correct.”
A first person account of the terror known as the “Chang Gang”, in this book Robert E Burns gives us an exciting memoir on his escape and a concise history of the origins and history of the Hard Labor System.
thrilling and educational, this book played a major role in the eventual abolition of the Hard Labor system, now recognized as a brutal form of medieval torture. The horrors in this book can only be described as another form of slavery.
“During a year in the chain gang, he has learned many things he did not know before. One is that human sympathy is only in the dictionary. Another is that this is a world where the fit win and the unfit fail. Victory embraces the shrewd, the dar-ing, the cunning and fearless. Failure hugs the docile, the weaklings and the coward.”
”I want the world to get this straight right here. While Georgia may say that I escaped from justice, I emphatically state that I am convinced that l escaped from injustice, intolerance and the vengeance of a society that is a hundred years behind the times. Let the reader decide which is correct.”
A first person account of the terror known as the “Chang Gang”, in this book Robert E Burns gives us an exciting memoir on his escape and a concise history of the origins and history of the Hard Labor System.
thrilling and educational, this book played a major role in the eventual abolition of the Hard Labor system, now recognized as a brutal form of medieval torture. The horrors in this book can only be described as another form of slavery.
“During a year in the chain gang, he has learned many things he did not know before. One is that human sympathy is only in the dictionary. Another is that this is a world where the fit win and the unfit fail. Victory embraces the shrewd, the dar-ing, the cunning and fearless. Failure hugs the docile, the weaklings and the coward.”
February 10, 2022
Robert E. Burns gives a first person account on his time spent within the Georgia prison system beginning in 1921. Burns exposes the harsh realities existing for him as a white man being punished for petty crime at this time.
Easy to read, strong juxtaposition between a good man and corrupt system. A system that has yet to be faultless, exactly 100 years later.
Critical, courageous, and honest!
Easy to read, strong juxtaposition between a good man and corrupt system. A system that has yet to be faultless, exactly 100 years later.
Critical, courageous, and honest!
June 21, 2017
He was not a fugitive from justice, but injustice.
Read it on vacation and got frustrated any time I had to put it down. Great read. Definitely recommend.
Read it on vacation and got frustrated any time I had to put it down. Great read. Definitely recommend.
June 24, 2017
Excellent tale by Robert Burns of his experiences in Georgia on a chain gang, after being found guilty of petty theft of $5 and some odd cents.
February 18, 2022
An astounding firsthand account of a man escaping from the horrific chain gangs of Georgia not once, but twice.
Aside from the cringeworthy moments of the racist language of the day being used [Burns was white and this book was written in 1931], this is not just an autobiography of a man who was literally a fugitive from the police state while writing this, but a critique of the police state and prison industry as awhole. This takes place in 1922, just 45 years after the end of Reconstruction; as Burns accurately surmises, in the Deep South, especially in Georgia, the prison system was not a place for reform or restoration, but revenge and vengeance. The slavocracy of Georgia was its primary means of profit and when that was decimated in 1865, a new system had to be implemented. That was convict leasing and the chain gangs. Burns discusses this at length.
There is a notable air of privilege here; that Burns was able to escape and live a comfortable, nearly-anonymous life for several years in Chicago, blending in with the white middle-class until he was re-captured, is evident of that. That he just so happened to find a nice white stranger to help him escape again, is also evident of that. But what Burns does, notably, is discuss the plight of the Black men in the chain gang, not in a disparaging way [although, again, this is 1931 and Burns is a white man -- there is majorly reactionary, racist language used at times] as to say that they deserve to be there and he doesn't, but to discuss how their lives on the chain gang are just as bad, if not worse.
Overall, a fantastic read if you are interested in prison abolition -- this may be one of the earliest examples of that specific style of writing.
Aside from the cringeworthy moments of the racist language of the day being used [Burns was white and this book was written in 1931], this is not just an autobiography of a man who was literally a fugitive from the police state while writing this, but a critique of the police state and prison industry as awhole. This takes place in 1922, just 45 years after the end of Reconstruction; as Burns accurately surmises, in the Deep South, especially in Georgia, the prison system was not a place for reform or restoration, but revenge and vengeance. The slavocracy of Georgia was its primary means of profit and when that was decimated in 1865, a new system had to be implemented. That was convict leasing and the chain gangs. Burns discusses this at length.
There is a notable air of privilege here; that Burns was able to escape and live a comfortable, nearly-anonymous life for several years in Chicago, blending in with the white middle-class until he was re-captured, is evident of that. That he just so happened to find a nice white stranger to help him escape again, is also evident of that. But what Burns does, notably, is discuss the plight of the Black men in the chain gang, not in a disparaging way [although, again, this is 1931 and Burns is a white man -- there is majorly reactionary, racist language used at times] as to say that they deserve to be there and he doesn't, but to discuss how their lives on the chain gang are just as bad, if not worse.
Overall, a fantastic read if you are interested in prison abolition -- this may be one of the earliest examples of that specific style of writing.
July 11, 2022
Came across this little volume while browsing in my local library. It was published in the 1930s, and is a first-hand account of what some kinds of punishment criminals were sentenced to.
Mr Burns was guilty of the crime he was charged with, although like many law breakers, he tries to minimize his involvement. In our current penal system, his sentence would not be anywhere near as harsh as what he received then. And by all accounts, the chain gang system was cruel and exploitative. He escaped once, was recaptured years later, then escaped again, after which the Georgia government seems to have just let things be.
If you are someone offended by historical language in a historical context written contemporaneously, this book is not for you. The author also includes early 20th century slang, some of which can be deduced from the context, but some I had to look up. He also mentions notorious crimes of the day, none of which I was aware of. Makes me wonder, in 100 years, what hot button events of today will have passed into the history books.
Mr Burns was guilty of the crime he was charged with, although like many law breakers, he tries to minimize his involvement. In our current penal system, his sentence would not be anywhere near as harsh as what he received then. And by all accounts, the chain gang system was cruel and exploitative. He escaped once, was recaptured years later, then escaped again, after which the Georgia government seems to have just let things be.
If you are someone offended by historical language in a historical context written contemporaneously, this book is not for you. The author also includes early 20th century slang, some of which can be deduced from the context, but some I had to look up. He also mentions notorious crimes of the day, none of which I was aware of. Makes me wonder, in 100 years, what hot button events of today will have passed into the history books.
November 20, 2024
Set in Georgia and Chicago. 257 pp. https://archive.org/details/iamfugiti... Amazing story of a man’s fight for freedom and justice.
I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! by Robert Elliott Burns
I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! by Robert Elliott Burns
September 5, 2021
True story written in first person
Hard to describe the impact this book had on me. How far our justice system has come since 100 years ago, yet how it hasn't changed at all. All very sad.
Hard to describe the impact this book had on me. How far our justice system has come since 100 years ago, yet how it hasn't changed at all. All very sad.
November 15, 2023
Amazing story. I’m not sure how the chain gangs of the past were beneficial to society. And I hope that the incarcerated of today don’t have the same attitudes and prejudices that were exhibited in those days. Interesting and quick read.
August 26, 2019
A riveting expose of the Georgia chain gang system.
September 12, 2023
super cool but totally dramatized memoir
June 25, 2025
incredible memoir of a double escapee who exposed the horrors of the Georgian chain gang system
August 16, 2025
pretty unbelievable that this is nonfiction and also had the historical impact that it did
August 10, 2022
The book and the story are fascinating. It shows how historically slow the south was to join the civilized, educated world. It explains many of the issues and behaviors the south demonstrates today including poverty, lower levels of higher learning degrees, and attitudes that often surprise. That divide of the 1930's appears to still be existent if somewhat mellowed. I strongly suggest reading this book to see how prisoners were treated in the south and why general perceptions exit today.
April 20, 2010
This was a very interesting account of a white Northern man's time on (and escaping from) Georgia chain gangs. The title, with its exclamation point, gives you a good idea of the flavor of the writing. The edition I read came with a long introduction detailing the role of the chain gang in the evolution of Georgia's post-Reconstruction economy.
August 23, 2015
What an incredible story!
This true story showed how brutal the justice system in Georgia was practiced then. It also revealed how fate and hope are so intertwined for a fugitive who had reformed himself and trying to live straight in a society full of hatreds and a long arm of the ridiculous penal system.
This true story showed how brutal the justice system in Georgia was practiced then. It also revealed how fate and hope are so intertwined for a fugitive who had reformed himself and trying to live straight in a society full of hatreds and a long arm of the ridiculous penal system.
March 9, 2016
I actually just dropped it instead of finishing. Had to buy it for a class, and it was twenty fuckin' dollars, so I was going to finish it eventually (having not read the whole thing when I was supposed to), but weeks passed and I still didn't pick it back up, so whatever. I could have used that $20 for something else
July 22, 2014
Sad
I'm glad that there is a forward in this book saying what happened to Burns, otherwise this would be a much sadder book! As it is he truly was a strong man and I'm glad he escaped!
I'm glad that there is a forward in this book saying what happened to Burns, otherwise this would be a much sadder book! As it is he truly was a strong man and I'm glad he escaped!
July 3, 2008
This was a quick read. I really liked the conflict between staying and facing the "justice" system or escaping the injustice and reforming oneself with the constant fear of being caught.
June 12, 2008
Interesting book- good read.
November 15, 2013
This was an excellent story on every level. Burns was a man who had truly been railroaded and to persevere not once but twice made it an incredible read. I recommend this highly.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews