By Emi Gruender
The Emancipation Proclamation was declared on January 1, 1863, followed by the 13th amendment in 1865, and since has been erroneously coined the groundbreaking end of slavery: when involuntary servitude was put to a neat, perfect end. After all, we did fight the bloodiest war of U.S. History, with an approximate 1.5 million dead by the war’s end in 1865. After such a price paid, then, many believe, black Americans were permitted to be free—despite the violent prejudice that followed for the next century onwards. The 13th Amendment guaranteed freedom, no matter how flawed, many may attest.
However, after the conclusion of the Civil War, the South was still very dependent on the manpower these Americans formerly provided. Particularly, the already less-developed southern railroad system was heavily damaged by war’s end. As a result, the South as a whole suffered from their damaged infrastructure, with no significant workforce left to repair the damage. But even still, despite the technical abolition of slavery, the Southern states needed to regain their workforce. From those ashes, then, arose the popular practice of slavery under a different name: “Chain Gangs.”
Chain Gangs originally stemmed from the Reconstruction era of the South (1860s-1870s) as a form of cheap labor. Prison convicts would be deferred to the “convict leasing system,” in which the private sector (individuals and corporations alike) could “rent out” these laborers for a very cheap price. These so-called “Chain Gangs” (due to the chains the convicts wore connecting them to each other) would often be subjected to extremely harsh working conditions, their ankles even becoming riddled with infected sores and ulcers from the chains fixed there. Despite the general support the 13th Amendment garnered, still many believed that involuntary servitude was not a moral disgrace, as long as it was used to punish wrongdoers no matter their race.
However, the inmate population was, and continues to be, composed of young Black American men. During the Reconstruction especially, Black Americans were often convicted upon technicalities according to the “Black Codes” which “criminalized legal activity for African Americans.” Loitering in a certain part of town or being present in the evenings (breaking “curfew”) was enough to spur mass incarcerations that filled the newly constructed prisons. Why? There was a loophole written in the 13th Amendment.
“Section 1:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction,”
reads the actual verbiage of the 13th Amendment, as is available by Congress. Though Congress had denied slavery in the “ownership” aspect, slavery in fact continued, but now in a “renting” aspect.
Due to this loophole, prison systems in the South regained their workforce by requiring labor from convicts whose penance does not necessarily equate to their “trespasses.” And even today, many states still allow involuntary servitude in prisons; California being one of them. When taking into account the convict leasing system’s roots in alternative slavery and the disproportionate prevalence of Black men in today’s prisons, one must truly wonder: did slavery really end with the 13th Amendment?