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In reply to the discussion: I never learned about this in American History class. [View all]Tanuki
(14,914 posts)25. There is an excellent, Pulitzer Prize -winning book on this topic
https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/douglas-blackmon
"Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
By Douglas A. Blackmon
Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ostensible debts, prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized by southern landowners and compelled into years of involuntary servitude. Government officials leased falsely imprisoned blacks to small-town entrepreneurs, provincial farmers, and dozens of corporationsincluding U.S. Steellooking for cheap and abundant labor. Armies of free black men labored without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced through beatings and physical torture to do the bidding of white masters for decades after the official abolition of American slavery.
The neoslavery system exploited legal loopholes and federal policies that discouraged prosecution of whites for continuing to hold black workers against their wills. As it poured millions of dollars into southern government treasuries, the new slavery also became a key instrument in the terrorization of African Americans seeking full participation in the U.S. political system.
Based on a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Slavery by AnotherName unearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude. It also reveals the stories of those who fought unsuccessfully against the re-emergence of human labor trafficking, the modern companies that profited most from neoslavery, and the systems final demise in the 1940s, partly due to fears of enemy propaganda about American racial abuse at the beginning of World War II.
Slavery by Another Name is a moving, sobering account of a little-known crime against African Americans, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today.
from the book jacket"
"Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
By Douglas A. Blackmon
Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ostensible debts, prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized by southern landowners and compelled into years of involuntary servitude. Government officials leased falsely imprisoned blacks to small-town entrepreneurs, provincial farmers, and dozens of corporationsincluding U.S. Steellooking for cheap and abundant labor. Armies of free black men labored without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced through beatings and physical torture to do the bidding of white masters for decades after the official abolition of American slavery.
The neoslavery system exploited legal loopholes and federal policies that discouraged prosecution of whites for continuing to hold black workers against their wills. As it poured millions of dollars into southern government treasuries, the new slavery also became a key instrument in the terrorization of African Americans seeking full participation in the U.S. political system.
Based on a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Slavery by AnotherName unearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude. It also reveals the stories of those who fought unsuccessfully against the re-emergence of human labor trafficking, the modern companies that profited most from neoslavery, and the systems final demise in the 1940s, partly due to fears of enemy propaganda about American racial abuse at the beginning of World War II.
Slavery by Another Name is a moving, sobering account of a little-known crime against African Americans, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today.
from the book jacket"
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Black men in prisons aren't used for forced labor now, but they are making men rich from
BComplex
Jun 2020
#39
Thank you, so much. We SHOULD have been taught. I have already passed it on to a friend. Thanks. n/t
Judi Lynn
Jun 2020
#8
And a number of years ago I remember hearing about how the symbols on contemporary police
fierywoman
Jun 2020
#9
Mandatory minimum sentencing...mainly a relic of the recent past, but insidious in its impact...
Moostache
Jun 2020
#18
A couple of friends of mine are (although they might not call themselves "esteemed")....
George II
Jun 2020
#57
White people could make more money, not "society". It is a poor utilization of talent & ability
Bernardo de La Paz
Jun 2020
#24
"Slavery by Another Name" by Douglas Blackmon tells the story. Cities like Atlanta and....
EarnestPutz
Jun 2020
#21
It was only a few yrs ago that I learned slaves built the WH. White owners rented them to govt
bobbieinok
Jun 2020
#23
Shit. That's probably where the pattern began of targeting black people within the limits of the law
Baitball Blogger
Jun 2020
#28
And these same laws have been used to target protesters who protest for LIBERAL causes,
BComplex
Jun 2020
#41