Involuntary Servitude - Picking The Cotton

[Keith Broaders]

After the slaves were emancipated a new form of human bondage was instituted. The plantation owners realized that control of their employees was potentially more profitable than ownership. The plantation owners allowed the former slaves to work on a plot of land as long as they agreed to pay the landlord a portion of what they were able to produce. This system of voluntary servitude replaced the system of involuntary servitude, but in both cases the individual was still subject to the jurisdiction of his master.

Today, we are all 21st century share croppers. The government is the landlord and we are the peasants that work on the government's plantation. We are required to pay a portion of what we produce for the privilege of living in the land of the free. The rent we pay is extracted from us in the form of taxation. Taxation is nothing more than government sponsored extortion. When you or I take the property of others without their consent, we have committed a crime, but when the government does the same thing, we tolerate theft under the color of law.