Well-known fact: Cotton was one of the staple products that fueled the Southern Economy. The cotton gin sped up the process of removing seeds but also called for a dramatically increased need for enslaved people to pick the cotton.
Lesser-known fact: After the Civil War ended and enslaved people were freed, cotton production increased despite the even greater need for workers. Some formerly enslaved stayed by choice, and a large percentage remained enslaved due to a provision in the 13th Amendment or being sentenced for crimes real or imagined, with the penalty being to work on the plantation.
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.
In theory, the enslavement of Black people ended on December 6, 1865, with the ratification and passage of the 13th Amendment, except for criminals, which I’ll address shortly. Some people point to September 22, 1862, with the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. That move only freed enslaved people in states that had seceded from the Union; only then if the enslaved people could make it to free states at considerable risk to themselves.
Others look at various dates in 1865 they declare the “end of the Civil War,” including April 9 when Ge. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, on April 16 when Wilson’s Raiders were defeated, on April 21 when Mosby’s Raiders gave up, and even on June 19 (Juneteenth) when Texas enslaved people were notified of their freedom. The war officially didn’t end until August 20, 1866, when President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation. Whatever date you prefer, the enslavement of Black people didn’t end on any of those dates. It continued for decades, and it could be argued lives on today.
Cotton had to be picked; despite the revised claim that the Civil War was about freeing Black people, it was all about keeping the Southern economy as part of the Union. It was like saying the Iraq War was about bringing democracy to the Iraqi people, and equality for women, instead of acknowledging the war was really about oil. On Juneteenth, in Texas, within the supposed announcement of freedom contained in General Order #3. Enslaved people were directed to return to their plantations and not look for assistance at Army posts or elsewhere. Don’t call us; we’ll call you.
“The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
By order of Major General Granger”
Cotton was a colossal force affecting the Southern and Northern economies, along with sugar, rice, tobacco, and other crops. Never was the intent for the millions of enslaved people to walk away and let the crops rot in their fields. Regardless of status, the objective was to keep most of them on the job and metaphorically keep the trains running on time.
The provision in the 13th Amendment allowing the enslavement of prisoners provided but a small base of workers. There were no huge prisons or jails like we have today. America needed more workers; therefore it had to generate more prisoners.
Immediately after the war ended legal enslavement, and southern states enacted Black Codes to deal with the newly freed. The Black Codes were simply an effort to reimplement slavery as best they could under the law. Mississippi and South Carolina issued the first Black Codes. In Mississippi, formerly enslaved people were required to show proof of employment each January. Suppose they left their job before the end of the year. They would forfeit their wages and were subject to arrest. In South Carolina, blacks were subject to an annual tax if they worked in any other occupation besides farmer or servant. Failure to pay would lead to forced servitude on a plantation. Blacks were unable to own guns and knives.
Hundreds of thousands of blacks were forced back into slavery under the guise of law and order. Vagrancy violations were punished by forced work, orphans were sent to plantations against their will. Parents had to demonstrate their ability to support their children or they could be removed, and ultimately sent to a plantation. Legalized slavery by another name.
Congress did respond and enact a Civil Rights Act and passed the 14th and 15th Amendments, but that loophole in the 13th Amendment remained. Federal Troops were stationed in the South to provide some protection for the freedmen and freedwomen, but the Compromise of 1877 called for their removal, which was followed by Posse Comitatus in 1878 removed all safeguards for Black people and ensured nobody was coming to the rescue.
This led to the Jim Crow era when states in the South and the North enacted laws to keep the Black population in check. Long before Bill Clinton, Democrats, and Republicans passed a crime bill in the 1970s, mass incarceration was in full effect. Special laws were primarily enforced against Black people, designed to create more prisoners for hard labor. While many of the Jim Crow laws were about segregation, the penalty for violation was often imprisonment, where they would then be sent out to work as needed. Enslavement by another name.
Chain gangs became the new Black, with uniforms. I should note that white prisoners or those of any other race were exempt from the new form of slavery. Just less likely to be targeted for prosecution and unfair sentencing to send them to the chain gangs.
Chain gangs were finally outlawed in every state in 1995. Later the same year, they were reintroduced in Florida, Utah, Arizona, and Alabama. Arizona created separate chain gangs for females and juveniles. Chain gangs fall in and out of favor, coming and going, but wherever they exist, can we genuinely say slavery doesn’t? Do those enslaved look like the populace, or are they overwhelmingly brown or Black?
We have laws that discriminate against minorities and policies that still allow them to be enslaved. The sentencing disparity for crack cocaine vs. powdered cocaine had been reduced from 100:1 to 18:1, and Congress celebrated the change. Hello! It’s still 18:1; doesn’t anyone see that as a problem. Minorities more heavily used crack cocaine, and they are the ones receiving longer sentences. In asking the question, when did slavery end, the answer is that it never did. It exists in smaller numbers, to be sure, but why is it we need enslavement at all?
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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