Black convicts could be exploited because they were still perceived as slaves.

Evidence

The population of convicts, whose racial composition was dramatically transformed by the abolition of slavery, could be subjected to such intense exploitation and to such horrendous modes of punishment precisely because they continued to be perceived as slaves. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 80

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253; Black labor exploitation continued in new forms after slavery’s legal abolition; Black labor exploitation persisted in new forms beyond slavery’s legal end. (+2 more)

Related

• Black labor exploitation persisted in new forms beyond slavery’s legal end. (similarity 0.89)
• Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system (similarity 0.87)
• Black convict labor that built modern cities remains a hidden dimension of history. (similarity 0.85)
• Post-emancipation labor systems trapped former slaves by law and poverty. (similarity 0.83)
• The prison disciplined convicts into an industrial labor force (similarity 0.83)
• Prison is an ordinary life dimension in poor communities of color (similarity 0.83)
• The penitentiary mirrored chattel slavery in its structure and daily regime. (similarity 0.82)
• Prison abolition has a long history but remains culturally unthinkable (similarity 0.81)
• Alabama’s prison population flipped from ninety-nine percent white to majority black after emancipation (similarity 0.81)
• Racial repression shifted form with each change in Black labor exploitation (similarity 0.81)
• The prison boom was a way to concentrate and manage a capitalist human surplus (similarity 0.79)
• California’s prison boom absorbed surpluses of capital, land, and labor (similarity 0.79)
• Slavery did not end but evolved through later coercive labor systems (similarity 0.78)
• Nearly one in three young black men were under correctional supervision by 1995 (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Black labor exploitation continued in new forms after slavery’s legal abolition #expands (0.80)
• Black labor exploitation persisted in new forms beyond slavery’s legal end. #expands (0.80)
• Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system #expands (0.70) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253
• Black convict labor that built modern cities remains a hidden dimension of history. #exemplifies (0.50) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 87
• Slavery’s abolition parallels the conceivable abolition of prisons #responds-to (0.40)