Reconstruction – a time period in which the country was struggling to reunite themselves after a time of great separation, the Civil War. With the victory of the Union, slavery would soon be abolished. The thirteenth, fourteenth and, fifteenth amendments, known as the Reconstruction amendments, gave the freedmen citizenship, rights, and the right to vote, respectively. However, it would not be until many decades to come, that the idea of freedom for the African Americans would be what they expected.
In Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Slavery by Another Name, readers are given insight to this concept of neo-slavery, or in essence, slavery by another name. Yes, the Civil War did grant slaves freedom, but it would be difficult for the men of the South to quickly rid themselves of the habits of owning slaves and give them the entitlements that they received upon becoming freedmen. To combat the radical changes taking place in the South, former Confederates enacted laws that specifically attacked the freed men and women. Although these laws did not explicitly state that they only applied to the blacks, the concepts they focused on were directed at them. These laws were conveniently named the Black Codes.
One example of the Black Codes that is explained in the novel is the concept of vagrancy laws. Vagrancy laws allowed officials to arrest blacks who could not provide proof that they had a job. In other words, if a black man were just walking in the street, as many white men also often did, he could be arrested under terms of vagrancy. Blackmon describes this concept as “Vagrancy, the offense of a person not being able to prove at a given moment that he or she is employed, was a new flimsy concoction dredged up from legal obscurity… by the legislatures of Alabama and other southern states.” This idea was a stepping stone for similar laws to be enacted. In an effort to ‘help’ the blacks, former slave owners would pay the fines for the blacks to get out of jail. In return, the blacks would then have to work the money off. This also lead to the concept of share-cropping. At this time, blacks needed land, and whites needed cheap labor. Share-cropping was a compromise: blacks would rent land from the whites (often their former slave owners) and would pay for it using the crops the raised (usually cotton). The black, in turn, would often become ‘tied to the land’ because of the fact that they always were owing money/crops to the land owners. This was known as the crop-lien system. Precisely, this is the type of neo-slavery that Blackmon is referencing. Even though land owners were not gaining much, aside from the cheap labor, they were content because they kept the freedmen oppressed.
Blackmon also discusses the concept of “leasing convicts”. In order to clear up prisons, the southern states would “lease” their criminals to local companies who would purchase them for a minimal price and maintain them. Thus, it would eliminate the costs for the prison. The men were cheap labor, and did not have to be treated fairly, since they were convicts, and were cheap and easy to replace (unlike slaves that were very expensive). An entire highly profitable market developed.
Blackmon uses a new approach to explain this time period to his readers. Instead of creating a history book or just a fictional novel, he combines investigative journalism with storytelling. He uses everything from archives of personal stories to census data to tell the story of this time period of alternative slavery. By using direct sources, and giving a list of them at the end of the book, readers are able to note the exact places from which the information was retrieved. The sources are not only listed in the back of the book but also numbered in the places that they are used throughout the novel for instant referencing. This organizational skill gives readers a sense of authenticity and trust in the author.
All in all, Slavery by Another Name, sheds light on an issue that is often overlooked. Prior to reading this novel, it was assumed that slavery ended with the Civil War. That after the blacks became freedmen, they were just that, free. Free of all burden, of all hassle that they were forced to deal with prior to this time period. But now, it is evident that this was definitely not the case. It was not until World War II that the freedmen would actually be free. And, even today, there is still a fight for equality and justice for all.