Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

In a word: heartbreaking.

This is probably the most illuminating text regarding the post-bellum treatment of Afro-Americans and the extension of Afro-American slavery well into fifth decade of the twentieth century. Douglas Blackmon provides an in-depth and intensive historical study of ways in which the United States abandoned the principles of Afro-American emancipation and full citizenship embodied...more

This is probably the most illuminating text regarding the post-bellum treatment of Afro-Americans and the extension of Afro-American slavery well into fifth decade of the twentieth century. Douglas Blackmon provides an in-depth and intensive historical study of ways in which the United States abandoned the principles of Afro-American emancipation and full citizenship embodied by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments for the purpose of re-enslaving, primarily, Afro-American males. Blackmon researches court documents, newspaper accounts and historical archives to reveal the truly astounding fact that hundreds of thousands of Afro-Americans in the deep South were routinely arrested and convicted of minor offenses and trumped up charges ( primarily vagrancy) and "sold" to wealthy industrialists representing agricultural, coal, and iron interests. The "convict lease" was justified by the claim that that the Afro-American "criminal's" only opportunity to pay to pay off the debts they accrued in these Southern kangaroo court fees would come through their labor. This practice, Blackmon argues, occurred well into the 1940s. In exchange for the cost of court fees (ranging from $5 to $70) Afro-Americans were forced to work for six to twelve months in conditions that could only be described by the term slavery. These "lease convicts" received no wages, were forced to pay for the minimal clothing and the meager food they received while interned, were chained during the day and locked in their quarters at night, were routinely brutally whipped and beaten for insubordination or inadequate performance, and were not allowed to leave their work stations unless granted permission by their lease owner. Oftentimes, these convicts had their "lease" extended through infractions ranging from refusal to submit to sexual advances to attempted escape. What is truly mind-blowing is Blackmon's discussion of the normative nature of Afro-American convict leasing in the South. After the Civil War, Southerners, according to Blackmon, never accepted the idea of Afro-Americans and Euro-American equality. Consequently, they were hell bent on punishing blacks for their role in the South's Civil-War defeat. After Reconstruction, Northern whites, for all practical purposes, abandoned their callow commitment to full equality of the Afro-American,leaving an overwhelmingly impoverished, illiterate, Afro-American population to fend for itself. Paradoxically, Blackmon's text illustrates that post-bellum Afro-Americans were in many ways worse off than their enslaved brethren because Euro-Americans had no financial interest in their well being. Many were literally, beaten and worked to death... For social scientists attempting to understand the current state of Afro-American culture, especially the experience of contemporary Afro-American males, Blackmon's text is an absolute must. For laypersons that are simply confounded by the difference between Afro-Americans and other ethnic groups, Slavery by Another Name shines a glaring light on an unfortunate period of American history that continues to have significant effects on our everyday experience.   hide

I've always had a faint notion from the US history that actually seeps through our benighted educational system that the post-reconstruction South treated American blacks like second class citizens at best. But until this book, I had no idea how deep the horrors visited by post-reconstruction white supremecy upon hapless blacks was. Everyone one should read this book just to understand how...more

I've always had a faint notion from the US history that actually seeps through our benighted educational system that the post-reconstruction South treated American blacks like second class citizens at best. But until this book, I had no idea how deep the horrors visited by post-reconstruction white supremecy upon hapless blacks was. Everyone one should read this book just to understand how utterly we failed for 100 post-war years to live up to our national creed and promise for freed slaves and their children and grandchildren. Truly frightening.   hide