"Slavery Increase"

Hasaanah Abdul-Wahid

2/2/2017

AFAM 2100

 



The process in which made the increase of slavery possible, in the judicial system, was the fact that there was an existing loophole in the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Within this loophole, they were able to see that they could use those who were in the prison system as free labor.

This was a very lucrative process for private corporations and their counterparts in the law offices. Law officials, town law enforcement, judges and other persons with similar political power would turn out Black bodies for lease to these corporations. A lot of these men that they arrested would have bogus charges that also had ridiculous amounts of bail that they could (obviously) not be able to afford to pay. "All of this was predicated on the absolute defenslessness of black men in the legal system, and the near certainty that most would be unable to bond themselves out of jail or pay the fines imposed upon them" (Blackmon).

These corporations like coal mines railroad constructors would sadly be indebted to these corporations and would be forced to pay them back in labor. This was a pipe dream for most as they would certainly either perish under the conditions of their work or be trapped in the endless cycle of work day in and day out.