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.

Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.

profited from (incoming)·Thread
Racial Capitalism (Profit)
After emancipation, the same profit motive re-enslaved Black men through the courts.
enabled (incoming)·Event
The 13th Amendment
The amendment's "except as punishment for crime" clause became the loophole for forced prison labor.