Slavery in America

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Trump recently rescinded an executive order by Joe Biden to stop renewing federal contracts with 'for profit' prisons. By rescinding Executive Order 14006 of January 26, 2021, (January 20, 2025) Trump has, in essence, reactivated Federal 'for profit prison' contracts whereby people are literally enslaved. Handy, considering they are going to round up millions of people designated as 'illegal'. 

One of the most evil things that Biden did was participate in putting an extra million or so people into 'for profit prisons' where, according to the 13th Amendment, making them into literal slaves is just swell and that's what they do. 

In 2021, Biden signed an Executive Order that provides "... The Attorney General shall not renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities ..."

Now that it's back on, slavery, already a thing, will continue and almost certainly expand in the United States. A little background on the alleged elimination of slavery in the United States:

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, did not fully abolish slavery because of the “exception clause”, which allows slavery and involuntary servitude to continue as punishment for a crime:

"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."

Why Was This Exception Included?

  1. Political Compromise: The amendment needed support from former slave-holding states and white Northern politicians who feared too much disruption to the existing economic order.
  2. Economic Interests: The South's economy relied on forced labor. Ending slavery entirely would have dismantled its economic system. Allowing forced labor in prisons provided a workaround.
  3. Revenge & Control: After losing the Civil War, Southern elites sought ways to reassert white supremacy by criminalizing Black existence and forcing them back into servitude.

How Did This Lead to a New Form of Slavery?

After the 13th Amendment, Southern states exploited the loophole to create “slavery by another name” through:

  • Black Codes (1865-66): Laws criminalizing “vagrancy” and unemployment, specifically targeting newly freed Black people.
  • Convict Leasing: States leased out prisoners (mostly Black men) to plantations, railroads, and factories in conditions often worse than slavery.
  • Jim Crow Laws: Segregation and disenfranchisement kept Black people economically and politically powerless.

Legacy & Modern Impact

  • Mass Incarceration: The U.S. disproportionately imprisons Black and brown people, then forces them into unpaid or extremely low-paid prison labor.
  • Prison-Industrial Complex: Private corporations profit from cheap prison labor, making modern prisons functionally equivalent to forced labor camps.
  • Ongoing Disenfranchisement: Felony convictions strip voting rights, continuing the suppression of marginalized groups.

Conclusion

The 13th Amendment deliberately left a backdoor open for forced labor, ensuring that slavery could persist under a different name. Today, its legacy still fuels racial and economic injustice. True abolition would require removing the exception clause and dismantling the exploitative prison system.

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