Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

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Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 · rating details · 945 ratings · 200 reviews

In this groundbreaking historical exposé, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history—an “Age of Neoslavery” that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.

Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageou...more In this groundbreaking historical exposé, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history—an “Age of Neoslavery” that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.

Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ostensible “debts,” prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized by southern landowners and compelled into years of involuntary servitude. Government officials leased falsely imprisoned blacks to small-town entrepreneurs, provincial farmers, and dozens of corporations—including U.S. Steel—looking for cheap and abundant labor. Armies of “free” black men labored without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced through beatings and physical torture to do the bidding of white masters for decades after the official abolition of American slavery.
The neoslavery system exploited legal loopholes and federal policies that discouraged prosecution of whites for continuing to hold black workers against their wills. As it poured millions of dollars into southern government treasuries, the new slavery also became a key instrument in the terrorization of African Americans seeking full participation in the U.S. political system.

Based on a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Slavery by Another Name unearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude. It also reveals the stories of those who fought unsuccessfully against the re-emergence of human labor trafficking, the modern companies that profited most from neoslavery, and the system’s final demise in the 1940s, partly due to fears of enemy propaganda about American racial abuse at the beginning of World War II.
Slavery by Another Name is a moving, sobering account of a little-known crime against African Americans, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today.(less)

Hardcover, 480 pages

Published March 25th 2008 by Doubleday

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Nov 17, 2012 Vannessagrace Vannessagrace rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, douglas-a-blackmon

Slavery by Another Name lays out the Tea Party’s entire platform!

Slavery by Another Name follows the life of Green Cottenham who was arrested on March 30, 1908 by the sheriff of Selby County, Alabama, and charged with “vagrancy” and in walking in his footsteps author Blackmon shared what he’d learned about the politics of the day and how those politics and slavery were synonymous then as they are today.

Slavery: … that slow Poison, which is daily contaminating the Minds & Morals of our Peopl...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In his epilogue, Blackmon asserts that "In every aspect and among almost every demographic, how American society digested and processed the long, dark chapter between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the civil rights movement has been delusion." This popular history -- frequently revelatory and unrelentingly horrifying -- aims to correct such delusion. As the title makes plain, Blackmon describes the institutions that emerged to establish and maintain the forced labor of African Ame...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Camille rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had no idea that this was the next chapter of the south after emancipation. This book tells the story of one Green Cottenham, from his familial slave roots to his own death in the coal mines of Alabama. The author attempts to tie Green's story with that of thousands of African Americans who were unfairly arrested, ordered to pay outlandish court fees and, eventually "leased" to white farmers and industrialists in a state-sponsored convict leasing system. The book goes into detail of the shocki...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Leonard Timmons rated it 4 of 5 stars

I sort of knew lots of this. I did not know how close I was to it. If you live your life for the sole purpose of acquiring wealth, there is no limit to the evil that you can and will do. The amazing thing is that you will never admit that evil to yourself. It seems right. So very right.

This book helps to explain a lot of the dysfunction in the Black community. Not all of it, of course, but living under slavery and having that followed by 75 years of government-ignored terrorism changes a culture...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Michael added it

Hendrix College alumni Douglas Blackmon's 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning account of how the United States government allowed the re-enslavement of African Americans after Reconstruction.

This re-enclavement was accomplished by incarceration of African Americans for petty or non-existent crimes and then the convicts sold to work for industry that, in turn, paid the goverment for the convicts service ranks as a genocide equal to that of the slaughter of Native Americans in the name of "Manifest Destin...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

I will admit that I was a bit hesitant at first with this book. It seems there has been quite a few books come to my desk that are a bit brutal about the South in particular and the US in general. I was half expecting this to be another of the countless books that wish to heap blame on the south and want to further stir racial resentments for the author’s economic gain. I am so pleased to say that I did not find that to be the case with this book. Rather, I found a very interesting story that n...more I will admit that I was a bit hesitant at first with this book. It seems there has been quite a few books come to my desk that are a bit brutal about the South in particular and the US in general. I was half expecting this to be another of the countless books that wish to heap blame on the south and want to further stir racial resentments for the author’s economic gain. I am so pleased to say that I did not find that to be the case with this book. Rather, I found a very interesting story that needed to be told, something that is never mentioned in schools or by our grandparents.

After the War of Northern Aggression, a defeated South was further victimized by the Carpet baggers that sought complete humiliation of the defeated. These people looked to entirely recreate the social order. Whites were no longer to be alone at the top. With the right to vote and loans ensuring their ability to buy land, former slaves were advancing further than many thought possible. Yet, that came to a screeching halt even before the end of Reconstruction. The old South’s ways would not go so easily. The White’s started using the power of contracts to reclaim their former slaves. Offering extremely unfair contracts that reasserted the old hierarchy, the South was able to impede the rise of the African Americans.

Slavery by Another Name is a tragic tale of the enforce slavery of African-Americans through the legal system. It seems that Blacks were arrested for the pettiest of crimes and then given outrageous sentences. The counties and states then leased the prisoners to industry that worked these people to death in some cases. The book follows one family and shows just how much was changed from the civil war to World War II. Prisoners were used to created foundries and to mine iron in Alabama. They were used on the railroads and other public works projects.

Slavery By Another Name should be required reading for everyone, showing the evil aspects of a government that does not value the freedom of the individual and the ultimate tragedy in an obtrusive government that is aided by the segments that benefit from the behemoth government.(less)

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May 08, 2013 Uco Library added it

Shelves: emily-brown

Many of us hold a similar belief- that slavery ended with the Civil War. Slavery by Another Name blows that notion to smithereens. This Pulitzer Prize winning book, written by Douglas A. Blackmon, Atlanta Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, will show you how slavery of African American men and women continued far into the 20th century.

The shocking truth as to what happened to many southern black Americans after 1865 begins and ends in the criminal justice system. Southern whites created ci...more Many of us hold a similar belief- that slavery ended with the Civil War. Slavery by Another Name blows that notion to smithereens. This Pulitzer Prize winning book, written by Douglas A. Blackmon, Atlanta Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, will show you how slavery of African American men and women continued far into the 20th century.

The shocking truth as to what happened to many southern black Americans after 1865 begins and ends in the criminal justice system. Southern whites created civil laws that were strictly used to arrest black men and women.

Some examples from the book:

“an 1865 Mississippi statute required African American workers to enter into labor contacts with white farmers by January 1 of every year or risk arrest. Four other states legislated that African American could not legally be hired for work without a discharge paper from their previous employer- effectively preventing them from leaving the plantation of the white man they worked for. In the 1880s, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida enacted laws making it a criminal act for a black man to change employers without permission.” (Blackmon, 53).

These men and women were then tried and convicted for these crimes, and given a fine. When they couldn’t pay their fine, a white man would step up and pay it for them, making them sign a contract to work off their debt in prison mines from which they rarely returned.

This book draws stark parallels between the historical treatment of black Americans by the criminal justice system and the deep mistrust of that very same system today. In the face of mass incarceration, it’s not hard to see that there still may be some injustice in our prison system.

Blackmon is a skilled author, and each charge of re-enslavement is documented at length. Blackmon outlines the distance we’ve come since such overtly racist legal proceedings happened every day, and impresses upon the reader how much ground we still have to cover. This was an excellent, and enlightening, read.
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Mar 30, 2013 Mary Whisner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-punishment, history, race-in-america

Slavery by Another is at times hard to read -- and yet so compelling that it's hard to put down.

Douglas Blackmon, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal discovered the untold story of convict laborers in Birmingham's steel industry. His work on a newspaper article grew through painstaking research in the National Archives, local court records, newspaper archives, and piles of data, resulting in this impressive book.

For decades after the official end of slavery, African Americans were subject to...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Mark E. Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Slavery has not yet ended in the USA, but most people aren't even aware that it didn't end after the Civil War. Today the laws are more sophisticated, the courtrooms bigger, the proceedings always carefully recorded, but we have more prisoners than any other country in the world and they are disproportionately Black and "guilty" of nonviolent crimes. Torture, beatings, inadequate food, and lack of medical care are still common in US prisons, but prison officials have gotten better at hiding thin...more Slavery has not yet ended in the USA, but most people aren't even aware that it didn't end after the Civil War. Today the laws are more sophisticated, the courtrooms bigger, the proceedings always carefully recorded, but we have more prisoners than any other country in the world and they are disproportionately Black and "guilty" of nonviolent crimes. Torture, beatings, inadequate food, and lack of medical care are still common in US prisons, but prison officials have gotten better at hiding things and blaming the victims. The media and the public are all too ready to go along.

I think that things are going to get worse, not better. Although the US now has a Black President, so did many African countries like Uganda, and Idi Amin cannot be said to have improved the conditions of Blacks. Obama invaded and destroyed Libya, the country with the highest standard of living in Africa and where Blacks were treated with respect as equals, and has ignored the fact that the new regime he supports has been massacring Blacks. He has been dropping drone bombs and/or supporting Al Qaeda in Mali, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Syria and has sent US AFRICOM troops to 35 African countries. If he succeeds in recolonizing Africa, he or subsequent US administrations will need to encourage anti-Black sentiments in order to maintain control and prevent revolutions, and these sentiments will be adopted by much of the US public as being "patriotic" and in support of "national security," as US Blacks might be sympathetic to the plight of Africans once they understand what is going on.

I agree with most reviewers that this book should be required reading, and while it is necessary in order to understand our situation, it is not sufficient. We must extrapolate from the past into the present and the future. Our military and many huge multinational corporations are now dependent upon US prison labor, which is just as cheap and more convenient for them than foreign labor. The military-industrial complex will not allow reforms that could increase the costs of our wars of aggression along with corporate costs of obtaining resources and doing business.

Mark my words: Slavery has not ended in the United States and it is being globalized. Already we have no idea what is going on in our secret prisons overseas because they're secret. And we have supermax prisons here in the US where communications with the outside world are not allowed. Due process is no longer required to detain or kill US citizens. These are not temporary aberrations, they are fundamental to our capitalist system. Cutting labor costs is a way to maximize profits, and while lowering labor costs is helpful, eliminating labor costs to the greatest extent possible is still the best way to increase profits. Yet there are still millions of people who believe that this is the best system in the world and that this is the way that things were meant to be.

With the industrial and military pollution of the planet has come climate change beyond our abilities to control. Will anyone survive to write the history of slavery in our time as Blackmon has done for earlier times?

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Jan 02, 2013 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Freedom National is an exhaustive study of the destruction of slavery in the United States. Author James Oakes traces the development and application of a constitutional theory of abolition that originated in Europe and England and eventually became mainstream Republican thought. Mr. Oakes then shows how this theory guided the anti-slavery actions of Republicans from the civil war to ratification of the thirteenth amendment.

Mr. Oakes presents an argument originally developed by abolitionists tha...more Freedom National is an exhaustive study of the destruction of slavery in the United States. Author James Oakes traces the development and application of a constitutional theory of abolition that originated in Europe and England and eventually became mainstream Republican thought. Mr. Oakes then shows how this theory guided the anti-slavery actions of Republicans from the civil war to ratification of the thirteenth amendment.

Mr. Oakes presents an argument originally developed by abolitionists that since our constitution is based in natural law and since holding a property in man violates natural law, that chattel slavery -- the right of property in people -- is not natural and can only exist where legislation has been passed to create it. The constitution does not do so -- it only speaks of a servile status, of "persons held in service", not of a property in people. Because the constitution does not sanction slavery, it can only exist within states that passed legislation to specifically authorize it. Hence, freedom is national and slavery is only legal locally.

Most history restates President Lincoln's promises not to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed and portrays the southern states as acting rashly, but the author shows that Republican policies, based on a constitutional theory of abolition, would have created a cordon around the slave states and was intended to bring about the eventual elimination of slavery. As the author notes, "Historians often treat (Southern) rhetoric as though it were a species of hysteria...when in fact all the secessionists did was take Republicans at their word".

Like many people, I have always heard two conflicting views of the Emancipation Proclamation. One is that Lincoln's proclamation (issued on Jan 1, 1863 -- 150 years ago yesterday) freed all slaves. The other view is that the proclamation didn't actually free anybody. Mr. Oakes shows that both views are wrong. Emancipation actually began in 1861 when General Butler welcomed runaway slaves (as "contrabands") at Fort Monroe. In time, using the theory of military emancipation and with the consent of congress, slaves were being freed throughout the country. Enslaved people were not waiting for proclamations -- they were freeing themselves. The view that the proclamation did not free anyone may be technically true, but is cynical; the author shows how the proclamation put enormous pressure both on the border states and areas the union already occupied to eliminate slavery on their own. The author also shows that since emancipation was a military action, Lincoln and the Republicans were afraid that the south would try to enslave black people unless there was a constitutional ban. (Even though slavery was made illegal, the post war south was in fact able to re-implement defacto slavery. See Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.)

There is a mythical view of President Lincoln as "The Great Emancipator". Mr. Oakes takes nothing away from Lincoln and his cabinet but he does an excellent job of peeling back what I've heard called the "Lincolnification" of emancipation and the destruction of slavery. There were many people involved in ending slavery in the United States but today we hear very little about most of them: abolitionist constitutional theorists who set the stage by developing the legal arguments against slavery and in support of military emancipation; the US Army which took in thousands of runaway slaves (and their families) and put them to work for the union cause; the US Congress which passed the "Confiscation Acts" which promoted freedom and authorized the President to issue the Emancipation Proclamation; and many thousands of enslaved people who risked their lives to make for Union lines, who supplied the US Army with invaluable military intelligence and who personally fought for their freedom.

Mr. Oakes has taken a "deep dive" into the destruction of slavery. This is not a book for the casual reader, but it is excellent if you are interested in mid-19th century US history. This is really a masterful work.(less)

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Jan 02, 2013 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Slavery by Another Name describes profound injustice--of such size, depth, scope, length and volume that it puts a magnum-sized bullet hole in the notion that the American Dream is pure and good, or realistically attainable for all. As most of us know (consciously or not), slavery fueled the growth of antebellum America. What few of us know (and the book details) is that slavery continued long after the Civil War--until World War 2 in fact. All across the South, white industrialists, judges, far...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Aliyah rated it 4 of 5 stars

The conclusion, though written in a scholarly yet first person manner, is quite touching. Blackmon, tracks down the descendants of key players in the history of post-civil war exploitation, as well as the victims. Cottingham, one of the top slave owners back then, is traced down 5+ generations to a living relation of a slave who had taken the name of his owner. The major convict leasing corporations had no idea what their history was, with the chain gangs they held prisoners in the mines. The gr...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2-star, college-school, non-fiction

I read this for a Race and Diversity class in college and while the subject matter was fascinating and horrifying, the writing was lacking. The author focuses on the statement that every child learns in elementary school: Slavery ended after the Civil War - and proves how false that statement is. It was enlightening and terrible at the same time. I had no idea how ignorant I was about that section of America's history. African-Americans were basically re-enslaved for 75 years through the use of...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars

I would buy this book for anyone who is marginally interested in this subject. This is an incredibly important and largely unexamined piece of American history. I believe the atrocities of the post-Reconstruction era shape American life much more than antebellum slavery. It is very well written, both in the author's prosaic style and in his exhaustive research. One of the frustrations in scholarship on 19th century African American life is the dearth of written documentation on the lives of aver...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Ilya rated it 3 of 5 stars

In 1908, an unemployed 22-year-old black man walked to a train station in central Alabama, possibly to find a day's labor. He was suddenly arrested by a deputy sheriff, and thrown into jail. Three days later, he was charged with riding a freight train without a ticket. He denied the charge. He was then charged with vagrancy, an ill-specified offense usually applied to blacks, swiftly convicted, and sentenced to 30 days of hard labor and large fines. He could not afford the fines. The judge repla...more In 1908, an unemployed 22-year-old black man walked to a train station in central Alabama, possibly to find a day's labor. He was suddenly arrested by a deputy sheriff, and thrown into jail. Three days later, he was charged with riding a freight train without a ticket. He denied the charge. He was then charged with vagrancy, an ill-specified offense usually applied to blacks, swiftly convicted, and sentenced to 30 days of hard labor and large fines. He could not afford the fines. The judge replaced the sentence with a year of hard labor, and sent him to a coal mine owned by a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. About 200 convicts, the vast majority black, slept chained in the barracks at night, and worked underground during the day, extracting coal with a sledgehammer and a pickaxe. The norm was 8 tons of coal per day; those who did not fulfill it were whipped, or had their heads dunked into water for minutes at a time. An average of 4 or 5 convicts died each month: crushed by falling rock, electrocuted by a live electric wire, suffocated, whipped to death; more were injured but survived. The man convicted of vagrancy died of tuberculosis 4 months after his arrest. Other prisoners were there for offenses as trivial as adultery or gambling, which they may or may not have committed. The company loved using convicts, since their upkeep cost a lot less than paying wages to free miners, and they could not strike or unionize. The county loved receiving rent from the company. As for the blacks themselves, it is not like they could elect a different sheriff. Other enterprises too used mostly black convict labor, such as a huge brick factory in Georgia, sawmills, timber camps and cotton farms. In 1908, hearings in the Georgia legislature uncovered many abuses, and the state stopped the practice of convict leasing (which ruined the brick factory); so did a few other states. Yet other forms of involuntary servitude such as debt peonage continued: having workers "work off their debts" and not paying them enough to do that. In 1921, two agents from the agency later called the FBI visited a cotton farmer in Georgia and asked him whether any of his workers were held in peonage. Afraid of the consequences, he decided to murder his workers lest they testify against him. The farmer, his sons and an overseer drowned and shot 11 workers; when the drowned bodies started to surface, the farmer was arrested, confessed, and was convicted; he was the only white man convicted of killing a black man in Georgia between 1877 and 1966. This practice in turn ended during World War II. Francis Biddle, the United States Attorney General in 1941-1945, started enforcing Civil War-era antislavery laws; this was to be a "response of this country to the challenge of the ideals of democracy made by the new ideologies of Fascism and Communism". The Assistant Attorney General complained that "Enemy propagandists have used [instances of involuntary servitude] in international broadcasts to the colored race, saying that the democracies are insincere and that the enemy is their friend." In the decades after World War II, as we all know, the Jim Crow era ended; Blackmon argues that a better name of the era is "Age of Neoslavery". (less)

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Apr 14, 2010 Chrishna rated it 4 of 5 stars

In this exhaustively researched, footnoted and detailed book Mr. Blackmon explains the origin of chain gangs and slavery-type work contracts that came into being shortly after emancipation and persisted until the 1950s! I was reading this while I read The Help and it provided a backdrop for how the South could have remained so segregated for so long. Black workers were arrested on spurious charges, convicted in "courts" held outside of taverns and sentenced to outrageous fines and fees, all in t...more

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Jan 02, 2010 Walt rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in American history.

Don't read this book.

I say that in the vein of Br'er Rabbit's, "Don't throw me in that briar patch."

Exploitation of the downtrodden by some rich and powerful people and corporations is nothing new here in America or elsewhere in the world, and it seems to never vanish. It is an old relic of evolution --- you know, survival of the fittest and all that crap. And it continues well after evolution has passed beyond the notion of just picking on the poor and the meek and exploiting them to something...more

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Aug 23, 2009 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Astonishing, and embarrassing to me that it is astonishing to me. I knew about Jim Crow and the destruction of Reconstruction (am assigning Budiansky's The Bloody Shirt, about the vicious Southern campaign to destroy any semblance of progress, which started about three minutes after the Civil War ended), but nothing about this whole Southern edifice of compelled labor (ie slavery) that cropped up around the turn of the century and lasted until WWII. Local courts complied, law enforcement raked i...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Keren Threlfall rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reading, racism, american-history

This book was an atrocious account, but an an incredible read, recounting the indentured servitude of blacks in the South after Civil War. The book opens describing the life of Green Cottingham and his indentured service in a mine in 1908. Blackmon uses the history of the Cottingham family and their various ancestors and descendants to paint the main picture of life in the South. This covers the historical period from the Civil War up through World War II. Around this time, the lawless practice...more This book was an atrocious account, but an an incredible read, recounting the indentured servitude of blacks in the South after Civil War. The book opens describing the life of Green Cottingham and his indentured service in a mine in 1908. Blackmon uses the history of the Cottingham family and their various ancestors and descendants to paint the main picture of life in the South. This covers the historical period from the Civil War up through World War II. Around this time, the lawless practice of unofficial slavery was finally acted upon legally in a way that sent a message that such slavery was unconstitutional behavior for the states participating in this heinous act. (World War II and the Japanese equating America’s treatment of blacks with Germany’s treatment of Jews was a catalyst in the realization of and cessation of this horror.)

During the Reconstruction, black Americans living in the South actually had hope of opportunity and civil rights. They were able to vote and began to have other liberties previously unknown. But after the federal government withdrew (both in presence and policy), the atrocities towards blacks began to rise. Blacks were often arrested randomly (sometimes on official charges like vagrancy: not having a job; but any black out and about during laboring hours could be arrested on these charges regardless of his reasons for doing so; other times, there were no official charges, but when one could not afford to pay court fees, he had to “sell himself” in order to pay for his fees, whether he was guilty or not). So, the blacks were “sold” to both individual plantation owners and to corporations, mills, and factories. Often a sentence for six months was given, but then the “slaves” would be charged for the equipment they wore out, food and water, shelter, etc…, and the slavery went on and on. There was no way out, because it was often the justice system and officials participating in the buying and selling, as they received fees for every man sold. Both men and women were sold, as well as children. The brutalies and physical, sexual, emotional, and spiritual abuse committed with no regard to the lives of these men and women are shocking.

As hard as this was to read, it is a part of our nation’s history, and it does us no good to gloss over it. I found this quote at the end of the book to be helpful:
"When white Americans frankly peel back the layers of our commingled pasts, we are all marked by it. Whether a company or an individual, we are marred either by our connections to the specific crimes and injuries of our fathers and their fathers. Or we are tainted by the failures of our fathers to fulfill our national credos when their courage was most needed. We are formed in molds twisted by the gifts we received at the expense of others. It is not our “fault.” But it is undeniably our inheritance."(less)

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Feb 12, 2013 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a hugely important book; what it reveals about the horrible injustice of African-American experience in the deep South in the 75 years following the Civil War is difficult to believe, let alone accept. But Blackmon assembles and lays the facts out very clearly: The law was manipulated in some southern states to effect a de facto criminalization of the mere state of being black (think "Driving While Black" to the power of ten). Black prisoners were then "leased" as unskilled laborers (mos...more This is a hugely important book; what it reveals about the horrible injustice of African-American experience in the deep South in the 75 years following the Civil War is difficult to believe, let alone accept. But Blackmon assembles and lays the facts out very clearly: The law was manipulated in some southern states to effect a de facto criminalization of the mere state of being black (think "Driving While Black" to the power of ten). Black prisoners were then "leased" as unskilled laborers (mostly as mine and foundry workers) to the corporations that were driving the industrialization of the "New South," a state of affairs that greatly enriched both the corporations and the states that ran these forced-labor rackets while keeping blacks disenfranchised and powerless. This ad hoc system of jurisprudence was as improvisational as it was Kafkaesque: many men and women, besides being sentenced for virtually any reason at all ("vagrancy"--i.e., being unemployed while black--and using obscene language around white women were common charges), were often lost in the system for many months or years past their original terms. Living conditions were inhuman and safety concerns nonexistent; Blackmon makes the point that, under slavery, a black man had at least intrinsic financial value to his owner, and thus was kept fed and healthy, whereas under the new penal system, men were underfed, often sick, and frequently worked literally to death. These conditions continued until the U.S. government, fearing loss of face in the world community should it be revealed that the leader of the Free World had racially-based concentration camps and Gulags of its own, finally put an end to it during World War II.

The early part of the book also gives some fascinating glimpses of the complex relations between master and slave, and how the relationship between blacks and whites in the South actually deteriorated during and after Reconstruction, as literal slaves became more akin to feudal serfs, forced to into vicious cycles of debt and repayment by labor. Blackmon also shows us a rare look at how the cash-poor economy of the antebellum South worked--a complicated network of debt and barter in which money rarely, if ever, changed hands.

I only wish I could say that the book were more compelling, but, try as he might to introduce dramatic and personal narratives into his history, the book remains fairly dry and repetitive, and I must admit to skimming some sections. It is also much narrower in scope than I had expected; I was led to believe that it was a general overview of the oppression of African-Americans by economic means, but Blackmon stays focused--perhaps wisely--on just a few aspects of the corrupt prison-labor system in Alabama and Georgia. Nonetheless, Slavery by Another Name is essential reading.(less)

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Aug 12, 2011 Hayfa Qahtani rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

يقول المفكر والعلامة السوري عبد الرحمن الكواكبي في كتابة طبائع الاستبداد: ''الاستبداد لو كان رجلا وأراد أن يحتسب وينتسب لقال: أنا الشرّ وأبي الظلم وأمّي الإساءة وأخي الغدر، وأختي المسكنة، وعمي الضرّ، وخالي الذل وابني الفقر وبنتي البطالة وعشيرتي الجهالة، ووطني الخراب، أما ديني وشرفي فالمال.. المال.. المال''.

في عام 2009 حصل الكاتب الأمريكي دوجلاس بلاكمون على جائزة بوليتزر الشهيرة عن كتابة ''Slavery by Another Name - العبودية باسم جديد'' هذا الكتاب الذي ولد في مقال نشر في ''وول ستريت جورنال'' في عا...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Robert Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars

What Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee did for the so-called “Indian Wars,” Douglas A Blackmon’s Slavery By Another Name does for the period between Emancipation and World War II. We all know about the Emancipation Proclamation and the South’s reaction: the Ku Klux Klan, sharecropping, the Poll Tax, segregation and lynchings. We knew that freed blacks were discriminated against in every facet of their lives. What I didn’t know, even as a history major, was the extent to which the South’s judicial sy...more What Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee did for the so-called “Indian Wars,” Douglas A Blackmon’s Slavery By Another Name does for the period between Emancipation and World War II. We all know about the Emancipation Proclamation and the South’s reaction: the Ku Klux Klan, sharecropping, the Poll Tax, segregation and lynchings. We knew that freed blacks were discriminated against in every facet of their lives. What I didn’t know, even as a history major, was the extent to which the South’s judicial system and industrialization recreated an even more despicable system of slavery than existed prior to Emancipation.

While antebellum slave holders had a financial interest in the health of their “property,” the corporations and private farmers after the Civil War had no such interest because the slaves were leased. If you killed your slaves intentionally or otherwise, you simply put in an order for another and a sheriff would arrest another black man (sometimes even specific men based on request) for vagrancy, gambling, swearing, hopping a freight train or talking too loudly in the presence of a white woman. Justices of the Peace found the black men guilty, assessed a penalty and court costs. Even on the rare occasion in which an African American could pay the penalty for the crime, court costs were inevitably too high for all but the “wealthiest." Corporations and private farmers then offered to pay the fee and court costs and allow the convicted black man to work off his “debt.” Inevitably, additional costs were accrued during his imprisonment or he was charged with another crime immediately upon completion of his sentence so the debt was never paid and he was for all intents and purposes a slave for perpetuity or until he died or was no longer physically able to work. Waterboarding, daily whippings, dogs, shotguns, disease and 24-hour shackling awaited men who were guilty of no more than being African Americans in public. This system didn’t die completely until halfway through the 20th century.

Slavery By Another Name is shocking throughout. In 1921, a prominent farmer named John S. Williams was visited by a federal agent regarding the African America men laboring on his property. Shortly thereafter, Williams personally killed and ordered the death of all eleven so they couldn’t testify against him. He was convicted of murder and remained the only white man convicted of killing a black man in Georgia from 1877 to 1966 (page 364). I was born in 1966.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt knew they would exploit the continuing enslavement of African Americans for propaganda purposes. He gave the order that the federal government would once again act to eliminate involuntary servitude. Even so, it wasn’t until 1951 that Congress finally closed the remaining loopholes Americans relied upon to enslave their fellow countrymen.

Douglas A Blackmon’s Slavery By Another Name is tough to read. It’s hard to face the facts of our past. It is only by doing so, however, that we can both fully appreciate the freedoms we all enjoy today and guard against those Americans who refuse even today to respect their fellow human beings.
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Feb 17, 2013 Robert Federline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Robert by: Dr. Janis C. Brooks, Ph.D.

This book is shocking until one remembers that the history studied in school, and in the popular books, is that which was written by the winners. In the case where it was not a declared war, but rather an internal conflict, the ruling class's perspective controls. This is why there has been so little candidly written about the decimation of the Irish in the potato fame due to the hard-heartedness of the English. This book now reveals the shame in the United States in race relations following the...more This book is shocking until one remembers that the history studied in school, and in the popular books, is that which was written by the winners. In the case where it was not a declared war, but rather an internal conflict, the ruling class's perspective controls. This is why there has been so little candidly written about the decimation of the Irish in the potato fame due to the hard-heartedness of the English. This book now reveals the shame in the United States in race relations following the Civil War up to modern times.

Even having lived through the turbulent 1960's and the Civil Rights Movement, it is hard to believe that racisim was so institutionalized as revealed by this book. Racism is now viewed primarily as an issue of personal attitudes and prejudices. This book glaringly exposes how those attitudes were not only a majority viewpoint, but were adopted and promoted by the government and private industry, working hand-in-glove with one another.

Most adults today would tell you that slavery was ended by the Civil War, followed by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Most educated people realize that the Emancipation Proclamation was more symbolic than practical in ending slavery, since it only applied to states which were in rebellion, and would have meant absolutely nothing had the North not won the war. The 13th Amendment was thought to abolish slavery. It states, in part, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, . . . shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." This would have stopped the abominable practice, but for the loophole represented in the foregoing quote by the ellipsis. That loophole reads "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

Southern legislatures were quick to take advantage of this exception and quickly created a corrupt system of laws so that the exception would devour the rule. Vagrancy legislation became de rigueur. The methods of conviction were so lax as to be non-existent.

Because the methods had the appearance of law, the re-enslavement of African Americans was accepted without comment or qualm. The fact that it existed so long -- that it encroached so deeply into the twentieth century and its institutions.

The system of slavery was changed, and persisted, because of systemic prejudice in the lives of the people. The horror of slavery existed in the first place only because of the arrogance of some people thinking that they were better than others for purely superficial reasons. Such a basis of prejudice continues, even today, in society. Unfortunately, it is not only within the ignorant masses, but even among those who are well-educated. It is because of this insidious systemic prejudice that slavery was allowed to exist, and continued in altered forms.

This book is a warning. Evil will persist as long as the good turn a blind eye, and are willing to accept superficial excuses for the subjugation and oppression of others. The methods used to suppress others have simply become more sophisticated. While the dishonorable enslavement and selling of people to corporations, as revealed in this book, may no longer be taking place, we must be ever on guard against such evil as it diminishes all who are involved, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.

Only by recognizing the inherent dignity of all men, and judging each man on his own merits, rather than by stereotypes and in group condemnations, can the human race progress. We must recognize that the human race is the only race, and we will lose the race, unless we support and run together.(less)

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Feb 18, 2013 SweetPea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, history, library-kindle, non-fiction, pg-count-500-plus

This is an exceptionally important story that unfortunately was weighed down by an author that wasn't able to determine when enough examples made his point. I did not recall having an awareness of the post-Civil War time for African-Americans and became appalled as I learned what had essentially extended the period of slavery. While it is an unfortunate time in our history, it is important to be aware of what happened. In particular, the reality of pretending that something bad wasn't happening...more

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Dec 04, 2010 Patrick Sprunger rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Americans in general, Alabamians in particular

Shelves: american-history, read-in-2010

Slavery by Another Name is the rare example of regional history with sufficient appeal to attract a general, national audience. Regional histories often suffer from tunnel vision. Douglas A. Blackmon is the uncommon historian capable of correlating regional history and its national context. By defining the "era of Neoslavery" (Blackmon's proposed replacement for the term most Americans use: "Jim Crow") as existing between 1877 and 1945, the author expands his work's purpose beyond the confines o...more Slavery by Another Name is the rare example of regional history with sufficient appeal to attract a general, national audience. Regional histories often suffer from tunnel vision. Douglas A. Blackmon is the uncommon historian capable of correlating regional history and its national context. By defining the "era of Neoslavery" (Blackmon's proposed replacement for the term most Americans use: "Jim Crow") as existing between 1877 and 1945, the author expands his work's purpose beyond the confines of the Deep South alone. The beginning - the terminus of Reconstruction - and end - the end of World War II - compel readers to consider the subjugation of southern African Americans a national issue, rather than a regional one. What national factors contributed to their explotation? What national factors produced the solutions?

History students may have encountered President Theodore Roosevelt's appointment of the moderate Democrat Thomas Jones to the US district court in Montgomery, AL. In a widely read book like Edmund Morris's Theodore Rex, the fact is used to explain Roosevelt's political vision - as a leader committed to unifying unsettling polemic divide. Blackmon calls upon offical Washington's political philosophy regarding class and race to support his thesis. Judge Jones's and Attorney General Knox's activities owe less to their devotion to President Roosevelt than the Constitution each man was called on to defend (Roosevelt's significance was that of a focusing lens). These three men did not lay exclusive claim to a commitment to equality before the law. Their actions are used as an example of a nation in transition.

The author's conclusion that Neoslavery ended only when it created a conflict of national security is presumed to be correct, but could have been expanded. Blackmon contends that institutional white supremacy inhibited any true commitment to the African American, which is also presumed to be correct. However the notion that institutional subjugation of African Americans was revealed - and thus influenced - by German and Japanese propaganda is overly simplistic. It presumes the Hitler and Hirohito governments had extraordinary influence over America's geopolitical position through their own state declarations. More likely, the visceral reaction Americans expressed toward ethnic cleansing and the occupation of the Asian mainland forced Americans to confront their own hypocrisy. Though this too is incomplete. The legitimacy of foreign propaganda threatened national security less than the implications of ignoring a significant bloc of the domestic labor force. Just as World War II improved the conditions of women and ethnic and religious minorities - by calling them into military and industrial service - it also improved the conditions of African Americans by no small degree. This opinion does not run counter to Blackmon's thesis, but leads me to think the author did not take in the full view.

Slavery by Another Name leaves the reader considering a tricky question. Do the modern companies who descended from business that used slave labor in the past - or even used slave labor themselves - carry any responsibility today? I presume most people will be inclined to answer quickly. But after careful consideration, only the most strident ideologue will stand firm by an absolute "yes" or "no." (The author does not reveal much about his own view.)

Though Slavery by Another Name is a stirring narrative, with obvious social benefit to enriching the mosaic of American history, it may not be deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. The many case studies Blackmon selected to advance his thesis are too similar to one another. The veracity of institutionalized peonage can be argued without the use of so many redundant anecdotes. Also, the baroque prose is proof of the author's poetic soul, but history does not require the same adjectives one might use to embellish harlequin romance. "The gossamer facade of judicial process took only three days to weave" (p. 185). "Gossamer facade?" Really? The latter is a personal gripe, but one that nagged me throughout the book. Gripes are not necessarily criticism, though, and should not be allowed to discourage would-be readers from exposing themselves to a worthy (and cool-headed) history of one of America's dark chapters. Seldom is a book so relevant to both a regional and national audience. For this, Douglas Blackmon deserves recognition.

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Mar 08, 2012 K. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics-and-social-justice

Did you know that it was perfectly legal to buy and sell African Americans in the South right up until World War II, despite the end of legalized chattel slavery? Whether you did or not, this book is worth reading. The scope of the sale of black American citizens, the involvement of corrupt state criminal justice systems, the willingness of the rest of the country to remain comfortably ignorant and turn a blind eye, the dehumanization that took place, the astounding conditions under which these...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Stephen Matlock rated it 5 of 5 stars

Remarkable book. I picked it up based upon the recommendation of a friend, not knowing what it would say, and expecting it to be just a polemic.

It is not. It is mostly a quiet narrative about the experience of American citizens from 1865 - 1960. There is more emphasis upon the experience in Alabama because the author focuses on one family and its descendants, but there are examples spread broadly throughout the South.

It shouldn't be seen as a "slam upon the South" book, but it does go in to de...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Karen Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone and everyone!

Recommended to Karen by: PBS

First, let me acknowledge how difficult this book was for me to read. Not due to the writing but the topic and detail. It was emotionally wrenching and Blackmon painstakingly filled each page with names and scenarios of the most cruelest brutalities…because he delved so deep into the research I found myself wanting to honor the men and women and children he had given name to by absorbing and reflecting as much as I could handle until I completed the book.

Have you ever experienced an understandin...more First, let me acknowledge how difficult this book was for me to read. Not due to the writing but the topic and detail. It was emotionally wrenching and Blackmon painstakingly filled each page with names and scenarios of the most cruelest brutalities…because he delved so deep into the research I found myself wanting to honor the men and women and children he had given name to by absorbing and reflecting as much as I could handle until I completed the book.

Have you ever experienced an understanding so vivid that you have difficulty even breathing? The continuum of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (widespread physical and psychic devastion and how it collectively effects the whole group) was laid before me and how the discrepancies and injustices present in our justice system just kept running rampant in my mind. I know we sometimes do not want to acknowledge how oppression has operated in our past and present and we want to isolate occurrences as if they have no history, and even when we do, we speak in generalized speech. Blackmon names names and ties those name to present wealth of today’s companies. He does so by researching legal, prison, and company documents and presenting details in a narrative form.

After making the connections to how many individuals and corporations gained wealth at the expense of unjust prison labor system that randomly subjugated Black men, women and children to enslavement and continued risk of brutal death, Blackmon even reached out to present-day corporations to enlighten them on how their companies were built on the backs and lives of unjust prison slavery that lasted well into the 20th century.

The book begins with the search for the details of the life of one person, Green Cottenham, who was killed in a prison camp while still a young man in his 20s. The search leads the reader through the lives of others on both sides of this horrendous practice with the revelation of how widespread this practice was across the South and how later on it was sustained by industrialists of the North and how the Department of Justice handled (or not) the investigations of the practice. He eventually takes us to his attempts to connect with Cottenham’s living descendants and personalizing his work by connecting it to his interest from when he was a 12 year-old child in Louisiana(less)

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Mar 06, 2011 Wilson Hines rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: History, American 19th Century

Can you imagine the year being 1908 and there being an actual court condoned and operated slave trade in the United States of America? That is exactly what Mr. Blackmon brings to light and it wasn't only a localized problem, it was all over the South.
This is a book which I cannot describe, but only recommend. I was disheartened, embarrassed, but relieved to know this era in our history was finally put to rest by some great men like Booker T. Washington, W.B. Dubois, President Roosevelt and a li...more

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May 09, 2013 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

I went into this book with high expectations. It did not disappoint.

In Slavery by Another Name, Mr. Blackmon tells of an upsetting but ignored chapter in American history: that is, that slavery did not end in the 1860s but rather evolved as needed to fit within the letter (if not the spirit) of American law. To say this book is disturbing would be an understatement. Mr. Blackmon convincingly dismantles the rosy narrative that slavery ended along the Civil War, instead giving readers a version of...more I went into this book with high expectations. It did not disappoint.

In Slavery by Another Name, Mr. Blackmon tells of an upsetting but ignored chapter in American history: that is, that slavery did not end in the 1860s but rather evolved as needed to fit within the letter (if not the spirit) of American law. To say this book is disturbing would be an understatement. Mr. Blackmon convincingly dismantles the rosy narrative that slavery ended along the Civil War, instead giving readers a version of history that, sadly enough, makes more sense in the context of wider American history and current events in 2013 than the fictional version most of us learned in school.

As a warning: there are some pretty gruesome descriptions within these pages of man’s inhumanity to man. The sheer number of violent incidents covered in detail is repetitive, but it’s powerful and needed. It allows readers to grasp a sliver of the enormity of what African Americans faced on a daily basis during this time period: to read about this unending march of futility and abuse is emotionally draining, but to live through it? It’s chilling to the core to even imagine such an existence.

On a final note, I’d highly recommended reading Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow along with Slavery by Another Name. Despite different styles and focuses (legal versus historical), when taken together, the two form a powerful narrative of the reality of the African-American experience.

What I read in Slavery by Another Name will stick with me for a long time, and I can only hope this book will begin a reconsideration of how we talk about slavery and America's sordid history with its peculiar institution. Highly, highly recommended.

ETA: I watched the 2012 PBS documentary based on the book over the weekend, and it's well done. For those interested in the subject but not up for embarking upon a 400-page book, the documentary is an excellent substitute (and only about 90 minutes). For those who do read the book, some of the interviews featured in the documentary are a new and interesting addition. (less)

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About Douglas A. Blackmon

Douglas A. Blackmon is an American writer and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.

Based on a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Slavery by Another Name unearths the lost stories of tens of thousands of slaves and their descendants who...more

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“When white Americans frankly peel back the layers of our commingled pasts, we are all marked by it. Whether a company or an individual, we are marred either by our connections to the specific crimes and injuries of our fathers and their fathers. Or we are tainted by the failures of our fathers to fulfill our national credos when their courage was most needed. We are formed in molds twisted by the gifts we received at the expense of others. It is not our “fault.” But it is undeniably our inheritance.” — 2 people liked it

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