AFAM 2100
Professor Young
6 February 2017
The Process by Which Slavery Increased
After the Civil War, slavery was considered illegal…
technically. So in a sense slavery was
no longer existent, free labor of African Americans was no longer a thing in
the south. Well let us just say that
there was a big loophole in the system that actually labeled slavery as
illegal. This is where the term convict
leasing is born. Free labor performed by
a convicted criminal was considered perfectly legal, in fact the idea was endorsed
throughout the public. Confession judgments
and convict leasing continued the rise of slavery, but in a different approach
that made it seem like these convicts were paying back debt that was owed.
In weird words, convict leasing was simplistically
complex. In simple words, the accused
person was tried (most likely unfairly) was given fines and other expenses of
the court that were not payable. In
pretty much every case the defendant was an African American, as whites were
given less serious punishment, which was usually affordable to them. So in the case where the defendant could not
afford the penalty farmers, or other entrepreneurs would pay these fees and the
convict would pretty much be in debt to the man who paid the fines. So technically speaking they were only paying
off debt, not working for free. Realistically
speaking the slavery process just became a tad bit more difficult.
Douglass A. Blackmon states in Slavery by Another Name, “the man who had plowed the fields and
picked the cotton or corn might never actually see hard currency. His debts,
payments, and profit or loss were recorded only in the ledgers of the store.” Every dollar that was supposed to be given to
a convict was unseen, essentially it went straight into the pockets of the
loaner.
This was like a game to the whites. Sheriffs and other officials were paid to
make arrests, and witnesses were paid to “see” whatever needed to be seen. Blackmon also states, “In most southern
states, county sheriffs and their deputies received no regular salaries. Instead,
the law enforcement officers, justices of the peace, certain court officials,
and any witnesses who testified against a defendant were compensated primarily
from specific fees charged to those who voluntarily or involuntarily came into
the court system.” Convict leasing was a
strategy used to fill the pockets of entrepreneurs and oppress black further
into a legal way of slavery.
It all starts with the absurd laws placed against blacks in
this time period. These laws lead to
arrests, which lead to confession judgments, which essentially led to convict
leasing. Everyone played a part in the
cycle, the sheriffs, witnesses, officials, and business owners. Convict leasing was something that made “slavery”
legal again. It was a loophole created
to keep the progression of slavery.
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