In the book and documentary film, Slavery by Another Name, Douglas Blackmon points out and emphasizes the ways in which slavery has been redesigned and updated to look like your ordinary criminal justice system and that the consequences that come with disobeying the law are normal and fair for everyone. However, what lies beneath the sugar-coated dishonesty is the horrific and troubling truth of it all- prisons were made to keep minorities, especially African Americans, from thriving in America. Who would believe that even after more than 200 years of slavery, in 1865 when the 13th Amendment was ratified, which supposedly abolished slavery, that African Americans would still be treated and worked as though slaves. Along with that, who would …show more content…
have guessed that even in 2015 slavery would still be continuing, but with a more reasonable and reassuring name: “Vagrancy laws”, “Pig laws”, “Peonage”, and the term used today, “Prison”. My personal beliefs coincide with Blackmon’s in saying that Vagrancy laws and Pig laws were both put in order and acted upon after the beginning of the Civil War to keep African Americans at the bottom of the totem pole, and for Whites to keep themselves at the top.
In Slavery by Another Name, Blackmon tells the story of Green Cottenham, an Alabama man who was put in jail and charged with Vagrancy: a law put in place for African Americans that put them in jail if they, at any point, were not able to prove they were employed. Blackmon explains in Slavery by Another Name (2008), “In every setting that Milner (John T. Milner) employed convict slaves in the late nineteenth century, he and his business associates subjected the workers to almost animalistic mistreatment- a revivification of the most atrocious aspects of antebellum bondage” (p. 52). If that is not the true definition of slavery by another name, then I don’t know what …show more content…
is. The Convict Lease System parallels to Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow and contemporary prison labor in several ways. Alexander states in The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010), “Clearly, the purpose of the black codes in general and the vagrancy laws in particular was to establish another system of forced labor” (p. 28). In my opinion, Black Codes were put in place in order to make it appear as if slavery was a thing of the past. I find it ironic how quickly Black Codes were ripped down just as African Americans began to rise up in status and power, having positions in Office and being able to own their own property. Soon after the repeal of Black Codes, Pig laws were enacted: the unfair penalization of poor African Americans for small crimes, treating them as felonies, with harsh sentences and fines.
The practice of putting African Americans in prison for long periods of time because small crimes continues today, with drug possession and unpaid child support being some of the main “crimes” committed. After Pig laws, there was no way for African Americans to be in any kind of power, and prison wardens began to lease within the prisons, selling prisoners, and forcing them to work for little-to-no profit: the birth of Convict Leasing and Forced Labor. The Convict Lease System is still the basis of prisons today, with many prisons using the prisoners to do dangerous work such as fighting wildfires, “About 4,000 low-level felons from California’s state prisons are fighting the fires, operating out of so-called ‘conservation camps’” (O’Connell), or manual labor like working with raw meat and constructing furniture for college dormitories, all while paying them very little, “…MCE is dedicated to manufacturing superior products at affordable prices along with providing a positive direct economic impact to the State of Maryland.” (Maryland Correctional Enterprises,
2015). Since the first slaves were taken during the early 1600’s, African Americans have never truly been free, or treated as equal to Whites. From slavery, to Black Codes, to Vagrancy Laws, to Jim Crow Laws, up until today with modern day convict leasing in prisons, the lives of African Americans have been domineered and exploited by Whites.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States. Michelle Alexander (2010) argues that despite the old Jim Crow is death, does not necessarily means the end of racial caste (p.21). In her book “The New Jim Crow”, Alexander describes a set of practices and social discourses that serve to maintain African American people controlled by institutions. In this book her analyses is centered in examining the mass incarceration phenomenon in recent years. Comparing Jim Crow with mass incarceration she points out that mass incarceration is a network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that works together –almost invisible– to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined by race, African American (p. 178 -190).
While the formal abolition of slavery, on the 6th of December 1865 freed black Americans from their slave labour, they were still unequal to and discriminated by white Americans for the next century. This ‘freedom’, meant that black Americans ‘felt like a bird out of a cage’ , but this freedom from slavery did not equate to their complete liberty, rather they were kept in destitute through their economic, social, and political state.
Today, more African American adults are under correctional control than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began (Alexander 180). Throughout history, there have been multiple racial caste systems in the United States. In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander defines a “racial caste” as “a racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom” (12). Alexander argues that both Jim Crow and slavery functioned as racial caste systems, and that our current system of mass incarceration functions as a similar caste system, which she labels “The New Jim Crow”. There is now a silent Jim Crow in our nation. Mass incarceration today serves the same function as did slavery before the Civil War and Jim Crow laws after the Civil War - to uphold a racial caste system.
Throughout history the definition of slavery has constantly changed, and although it is deemed illegal by the United Nations definitions of what it means varies by country. In 1922 the definition of Slavery was established by the League of Nations on an international level as: “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised” (Bales, 2001). According to Kevin Bales he defines slavery as “The complete control of a person, for economic exploitation, by violence, or the threat of violence” (Bales, 2001).
"Slavery, the Prison/Industrial Complex, and American Hypocrisy | Green Commons." Green Commons | Netroots of the Green Party (u.s.). Web. 06 Mar. 2011. www.greencommons.org
David M. Oshinsky’s book “Worse Than Slavery” brings to life the reality that faced slaves after the abolishment of slavery. It recounts the lives that these men faced daily and it made me question the humanity of all those who were involved and question how as a society we let this ever happen. From the convicts being leased out to people who didn’t care about their well-being to a life back on a state ran plantation, where life was worse than it was for them as slaves. It showed just how unfair the justice system was for a black prisoner compared to a white prisoner. Their lives were worthless and replaceable and only mattered when they were thought to be worth something to someone.
The documentary 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay, portrays how although slavery was abolished, through political movements it has transformed and reemerged as mass incarceration. The title refers to the 13th amendment which ended slavery, but as DuVernay shows, it left a loophole which has been thoroughly exploited throughout the years. The United States government has systematically found ways to oppress African Americans which has led to the statistic that today one in three black males go to jail while only one in seventeen white males see the inside of a prison cell. This loophole, also known as the exception clause, states that slavery is abolished “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” Ultimately,
Slavery by Another Name is a book that tells about the times after the Civil War and to WWII. This book tells the story of many African Americans and the treatment they endured even though slavery had been abolished. In this paper the following will be discussed how this book relates to issues discussed in class, the knowledge it added to the main theme of American history, and the organization and sources of the book. These three things that will be discussed help to see the reasons behind the book.
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slavery was cruelty at its best. Slavery is described as long work days, a lack of respect for a human being, and the inability for a man or a woman to have gainful employment. The slaves were victimized the most for obvious reasons. Next on the list would be the families of both the slave and slave owners. At the bottom of the list would be the slave owners. Slavery does in fact victimize slaves, slave owner and their families by repeating the same cycle every generation.
In 13th, Michelle Alexander indicates that she believes that features of the former Jim Crow laws abruptly become lawful when a person of color is named a convict. When one is named a convict, they often lose rights similar to that of the right to vote, bear arms, and serve on a jury. Alexander ties these rights taken from current felons to rights taken from slaves in the time of the Jim Crow laws. In Alexander’s view, one might reason that the Jim Crow laws were simply a replacement for slavery in the same way that imprisonment of colored people is currently a replacement for the previous Jim Crow laws. Glenn Martin states in 13th that “Systems of oppression are durable, and they tend to reinvent themselves.” This statement supports Alexander’s thoughts on how features of Jim Crow laws are used currently. The essence of Alexander and Martin’s argument is that laws are being manipulated by being given a different name to make seem them more appealing to the white, American
Ava DuVernay’s 2016 documentary, 13th, examines how the United States has globally acquired the largest prison population, majority of that population being African-American. The film is directed and edited by DuVernay and Spencer Averick, whose choices as a team have been called “powerful, infuriating and at times overwhelming” by the New York Times. 13th, named after the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution, explores how systemic racism and dog-whistle politics in the United States has fueled the rapid growth of our current prison system, causing the mass incarceration of black and brown people. The 13th amendment, ratified in 1865, at first glance abolishes slavery. However, there is one circumstance in America that makes enslavement
Back in slavery, slaves owners made a profit off the labor of the crop their slaves made by picking cotton. Today, prisons are funded by each prisoner they hold, so the more prisoners the more money they have. The familiarity in the two is sickening, especially because it has been decades since that time and you can still see the trends in the mistreatment of black people. Yes, it is not as brutal as back then but that does not justify it. An article states, “It is not surprising that poor people of color have been incarcerated disproportionately during the massive increase in imprisonment that has occurred in the nation since the early 1980s” (Issues). Displaying in statistics, it is factual that massive incarceration in the black community isn’t something new to the country it has been going on since the 1980s, that was decades ago, and still in 2017 it is an ongoing problem. People recognizing the problem and stop ignorantly ignoring it. Another article recognizes and states that, “It’s taken a long time for this blind spot to be recognized. Much of the debate about prisons has focused on disparities in the justice system, and rightly so, Western says. The problem begins there”( The Washington Post). This meaning the problem solving won’t start until the problem is acknowledged. That’s the first step into solving this problem. Many people do not understand what blacks go
It has recently come to my attention an article talking about the worth of slavery and what should be done with them. Before I found the value of African Americans, I used to think they were born to be slaves and didn’t have any kind of human rights just because of their color, but I recently was enlightened and I started viewing African Americans as humans which made me give up being a slave owner and become a supporter of giving African Americans rights and no longer having slaves. Anyways, what came to my attention, as a former slave owner, is how the article talked about how slaves should be treated and handled. I believe slaves should be treated with respect and handle as a person who has all the rights you may have as a human being.
...al scale, even the payments ("gratuities") made to prisoners for various kinds of work done under prison regulations discrimi nate not only among the races but also between men and women, with female African prisoners receiving the minimum. There is discrimination against African women in non-wage conditions of work as well. One egregious example is the provision by which the employment of an African woman in the public service and at the black university colleges is, by law, terminated on her marriage, a condition which, of course, does not apply to male employees. Only the desperate situation of rural Africans can explain the struggle of African women to remain in the cities, although most of them must accept the least desirable jobs at the lowest rates of pay - far below the poverty datum line. It is the white employer, in his business and his home, who profits.
“The Quality of Slave Labor and Racism”, does not delve into how black people responded to slavery. It concentrated too much on the workings and process of the slave system, rather than the emotions slaves felt. This is why Fogel and Engerman fail to answer the question compared to Stampp, they are far too objective in this article for a question dealing with human sentiment which is subjective. Other complications can be found; they lack sources besides other historians. This is an issue as to fully understand the thoughts and opinions of certain peoples, quotes and stories of these people need to be discussed. Without these sources, readers are not able to interpret the feelings or causes of actions slaves felt, leaving out human characteristics