Summary
Overview
Josh and Chuck explore the dark history and current reality of prison labor in the United States, from its origins in Thomas More's Utopia through convict leasing in the post-Civil War South to modern mass incarceration. They examine how the 13th Amendment's loophole enabled legalized slavery, the brutal conditions of chain gangs, and today's exploitative labor practices where prisoners earn an average of 52 cents per hour while being excluded from basic worker protections.
Origins of Prison Labor and Early American Practices
The concept of prison labor emerged during the Enlightenment when Thomas More proposed using work as punishment instead of execution or mutilation. Before the American Revolution, England transported 60,000 convicted criminals to the colonies as indentured servants, primarily to Maryland and Virginia. These "king's passengers" worked brutal 7-14 year sentences on tobacco farms and in industrial settings, while enslaved Black people remained entirely under plantation owners' control outside the legal justice system.
- Thomas More introduced prison labor as an alternative to execution in his 16th century book Utopia, proposing rehabilitation through work
- 60,000 prisoners were transported from England to American colonies before the Revolution, with 90% going to Maryland and Virginia
- Indentured servitude was aimed exclusively at white people, as the government wouldn't intervene in plantation owner-enslaved person dynamics
- The penitentiary concept came from Quakers who believed in "redemptive suffering" and quiet reflection to find God
" One, it can deter people from committing crime if they see somebody manual laboring for probably no money or very little money these days. The second is it can help rehabilitate that person and make them think about what they've done, basically. And then the most obvious one is we can get them to do stuff for us for nothing. "
The 13th Amendment Loophole and Post-Civil War Convict Leasing
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery but included a critical exception allowing involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. Southern states immediately exploited this loophole through Black Codes and convict leasing systems. Georgia led the way in 1868, leasing 100 Black prisoners to the Georgia and Alabama Railroad for $25 each, with 16 dying in the first year. By 1898, convict leasing generated 73% of Alabama's state revenue as former slaves were re-enslaved through the justice system.
- The 13th Amendment's exception clause made slave labor legal in prisons, creating a constitutional loophole immediately exploited in the South
- Black Codes criminalized being a free Black person, allowing arrests for vagrancy and re-enslavement on the same plantations
- Georgia pioneered convict leasing in 1868, renting 100 Black prisoners for $25 each with 16 dying in the first year
- By 1898, convict leasing made up 73% of Alabama's state revenue
- Sheriffs would make arrests on demand before cotton harvests to stock plantations with workers
" Not only was it okay, it enshrined in the Constitution that slave labor is legal in prisons. "
" They would just cook something up and arrest you, and you have basically no rights and no representation. So it's just a way to stock the industry or the farm or the field with workers. "
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