System of oppression · 1865–1941
Convict Leasing & Debt Peonage
After emancipation, Black men were arrested under Black Codes and leased as forced labor, "slavery by another name."
Resources
Pulitzer-winning history of convict leasing and re-enslavement after the Civil War.
The "except as punishment" clause, from convict leasing to today's prison labor.
How convict leasing and peonage re-enslaved Black Southerners until World War II.
Slavery's "taste for violent punishment" and the modern prison.
The former plantation's convict-leasing past and present-day carceral labor.
The 2018 discovery of 95 convict-leasing victims under a Texas school site.
Plantation-turned-prisons (Angola, Parchman) and uncompensated field labor.
PBS documentary on the convict-leasing and peonage systems that re-enslaved Black Americans after the Civil War.
Pulitzer-winning history of convict leasing and forced labor that re-enslaved Black Americans after emancipation.
The convict-leasing-to-private-prison through-line.
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations, the links rarely drawn together.
- part of·ThreadFrom Owned to Caste
Re-enslavement through the criminal-labor loophole, "slavery by another name."
- connects to (incoming)·ThreadPolicing & the Courts: Instruments of Control
After emancipation, arrests fed the convict-lease labor market.
- caused (incoming)·ThreadGreed, The Root
After emancipation, convict leasing re-monetized Black bodies by renting prisoners as forced labor.
- profited from (incoming)·ThreadRacial Capitalism (Profit)
After emancipation, the same profit motive re-enslaved Black men through the courts.
- enabled (incoming)·EventThe 13th Amendment
The amendment's "except as punishment for crime" clause became the loophole for forced prison labor.
- profited from (incoming)·InstitutionThe State of Alabama
By 1898 convict leasing supplied an estimated ~70% of Alabama's state revenue.
- builds on (incoming)·InstitutionCoreCivic
The private-prison model extends the logic of convict leasing.
- builds on (incoming)·InstitutionThe GEO Group
For-profit detention is the heir of convict leasing.
- connects to·ThreadSharecropping & Tenant Farming
Convict leasing, sharecropping, and debt peonage worked together to control and cheapen Black labor.