Modern-day Slavery

Our Founding Fathers promised the protection of life, liberty, and happiness in the US constitution. However, these freedoms applied only to a select few. In many states, only property-owning, white males enjoyed full liberties. Many of the ideals listed in the constitution originate from European philosophers. John Locke outlined the innate rights of humans, Montesquieu determined that power should be separated into branches, and Voltaire believed in freedom of speech and the humane treatment of prisoners. Despite these morals, the existing system of slavery created the greatest contradiction to these ideals. The founders of the United States created their own system of tyranny and injustices just as they escaped the tyranny of Great Britain.

When The United States declared its independence, slaves accounted for one-fifth of the nation’s population. Slave-owning and trading was an accepted reality of colonial society. Even patriotic newspapers that published arguments of the Sons of Liberty included slave sale notices. The frequent description of Britain as a kingdom of slaves, and America as the land of the free, created immense irony since a large population of Americans were slaves.

In southern states, economies grew completely reliant on slave labor. After the civil war, cheap labor was desperately needed, and the creation of modern-day slavery was invented: the convict lease system. The Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program allowed United States companies to use prison labor. In recent years, the prison population skyrocketed. In 1971, there were less than 200,000 inmates in the US. By the end of 1996, the incarceration rate rose to almost 1.2 million. No other country has a larger proportion of prisoners. The United States has an incarceration rate that is five times Britain's, six times Canada's, and fifteen times Japan's. As African American and Latinos are disproportionately incarcerated, they make up the bulk of prison labor. In Virginia and Oklahoma, approximately one in every fourteen African American men are incarcerated.

These prisoners are leased to industrialists and planters. In 1883, convicts in Alabama contributed ten percent of the state's revenue, and in 1898 they accounted for seventy-three percent. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has a program called Federal Prison Industries which pays inmates under a dollar an hour and generated 500 million dollars in 2016. Government and private contractors gain enormous profits from the increased incarceration rates. This system has even become cheaper than slavery.

In 2017, 24,000 prisoners in 12 different states held protests against the inhumane conditions they experienced. They planned the event around the anniversary of the Attica Prison uprising, where prisoners rallied against overcrowded cells, unsanitary conditions, and medical neglect. Secret graveyards have been discovered that contain the remains of prisoners who were tortured and were apart of inmate labor.

Today, companies such as Walmart get their produce from farms where women inmates work, facing poor conditions, poor medical care, and extremely low wages. McDonald's uses prison labor to manufacture their uniforms. In 2013, federal inmates made 100 million dollars worth of military items and worked for as little as 23 cents an hour.

Outdated and immoral systems are kept alive under different names, subjugating minorities and violating labor rights. The same contradiction of liberties that was created between slave labor and the constitution exists between inmate labor and the constitution today.

"Slavery in the US prison system | Prisons | Al Jazeera." 9 Sep. 2017, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/09/slavery-prison-system-170901082522072.html. Accessed 9 Sep. 2018.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/09/slavery-prison-system-170901082522072.html "Crime and Punishment in America - The New York Times."

"The problem with prisons in America - Lockup nation - The Economist." 14 Dec. 2017, https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2017/12/14/the-problem-with-prisons-in-america. Accessed 9 Sep. 2018.