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Slavery By Another Name Summary

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To begin with, this paper will be about the legal, societal, and political events were highlighted in the video, “Slavery by Another Name” and how they explain how the institution of slavery for freed blacks continued after their emancipation. Of course, to begin, the abolishment of slavery, they verdicts and aftermath of court cases involving peonage, and forced labor, and also the political advancements that the presidents who were in office during this time after slavery had made within the African American communities and in the country as a whole.
Slavery is a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom. In 1865, after the Civil War ended, slavery was abolished by President Abraham Lincoln. …show more content…

The courts in various states then started to “lease convicts” to prisons. This convict leasing became a trend in state such as Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, and the revenue was outstanding. In 1880, Alabama made over 14000 dollars in revenue through convict leasing and by 1890, they’d made over 164000 in revenue through convict leasing. This system kept African Americans in a sort of slavery they seemed perfectly legal under the constitution. This system is called peonage. Peonage is a system of convict labor by which convicts are leased to contractors. This system was becoming so vulgar and deadly, that it had to be brought the justice systems attention. John Pase, Fletcher Turner, and James Kennedy, were all notorious slave owners in the south when slavery was in bound. Now they still have the wealthiest plantations, they were working under the peonage system, and “convict leasing” these African Americans out in repayment of debt or time in prison. These African Americans were made to sign contracts saying that they were going to be working under extraneous conditions and that they were giving consent to this contractor to basically own them during their punishment term. In 1902, Davis, a contracted worker for John Pase, was supposed to be let free because his time was up for work, John Pase refused to let him free, Davis escaped from him and then told the attorney W.S. Reese, about his experience. Rese realizes that this peonage is unacceptable and that he would try this case against John Pase. Pase was charged with several counts if peonage. Judge Jones verdict says that Pase, and his partners Fletcher, and Kennedy, were guilty if peonage and stripping African Americans of their rights. By 1903, the peonage trials were over but Pase was out of prison on appeals because his lawyers

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