Thirteenth Amendment and Convict Leasing

[Keith Broaders]

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.

The one exception to the abolition of slavry enabled the southern states to enslave millions of black men for nearly another one hundred years.

By convicting black men of a crime, the southern states could send black men to prison and lease then them out to work on plantations,railrpads or coal mines. 

This comvict leasing program was simply slavery with different name. Before the ratification of the Thiteenth Amendment it would cost up to a thousand dollars or more to purchase a  slaves but after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment a slave could be acquired for as little as ten dollars per month.

Before the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, in many cases the owners of slaves treated their slaves much better than the convicts that were rented after the ratification of the thirteenth amendment Replacing may cost a thousand dollars, but replacing s rented comvict cost just a few dollars.

[Keith Broaders]

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