How Child Slave Labor Continued Almost a Century After the Civil War

<p>The 13th Amendment provided an exception where enslavement was ended except for people convicted of crimes. When the Civil War ended, cotton production, for example,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/civil-war-cotton-capitalism-114776/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">exceeded pre-war levels</a>&nbsp;after a brief period.</p> <p>Cotton was still labor intensive. Enslaved people were replaced by sharecroppers and convicts leased by the states to employers. Because the number of convicts required to do the labor didn&rsquo;t exist, states generated more convicts by instituting &ldquo;Pig Laws.&rdquo; These laws made crimes as minor as stealing a pig worthy of a five-year sentence.</p> <p><a href="https://readcultured.com/how-child-slave-labor-continued-almost-a-century-after-the-civil-war-e0a2ae226362"><strong>Website</strong></a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>
Tags: Slave Labor