Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This segment of US History was an eye opener for me. Even though I was aware that after the Civil War and Reconstruction that African-Americans were subjugated to further disenfranchisement and racial discrimination. Also you'll learn a new word here too: peonage. Peonage is the servitude of someone in debt to someone else. In essence it was,as book title implies, slavery by another name.
How it ended up working was that a local official like a sheriff or constable would round up African-American's, usually male, and charge them with some vague charge. A Justice of the Peace or judge would hand them a fine which would also include,court fees,arrest fee, food and so on. The ultimate fine was usually out of the financial ability of those charged. So a system evolved that employers would pay the fines for the convicted and they would work of there debt for certain time period. They worked on mines, factories, lumber mills and cotton fields. As you can imagine this system was abused as the accused were often bought sold and traded between employers and business owners. Those held were often abused and killed with little thought by the overseers. This was still going on until the 1940's when the Federal Government finally cracked down on these abuses that went on primarily in the former Confederate states fearing that the Germans and Japanese would use this issue as propaganda.

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