BY: LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE

I like so many other children in America was falsely taught in school, that the civil war (April,12, 1861to may 9, 1865) was fought to give black people freedom and that black people received that freedom from slavery after the civil war ended in 1865, when the abolitionist north won, the war.

Years later I would sadly learn that systematic slavery never ended after civil war, in fact the 13th amendment Was passed by the United States senate to keep a form of systematic slavery alive and well in America. On April 8, 1864, before the civil war even ended. The thirteenth Amendment states: Section #1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within, the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Even today slavery still exist through America, legally in maximum security prisons, like the Angola prison in Louisiana or the parchman farm prison in Mississippi, just to name a couple. There prisoners are forced to work or be punished by solitary confinement, which often times makes inmates go insane, if in there for long periods of time.

Inmates are often times forced to work for free, but if they are giving any compensation, it can be as meager as two cents an hour, or 16 cents a day, which only adds up to approximately $3.20 a month, depending on the length of the month.

Currently America leads the industrialized world, with approximately 2.2 million prison inmates, which means their are more people in chains, forced to work than before the civil war and considering the racially bias justice system and racial profiling, a large percent of the inmates are black, even though blacks are make up as little as 12 percent of the United States population.

Today’s prison-slaves, often times have to do mining work, Agriculture, build military equipment and make garments for big business corporations, they same way their ancestors were forced to work the cotton fields and plantations of the antebellum slavery days.

Use link below for additional information:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/prison-labor-in-america/406177/