Slavery by Another Name Slavery by Another Name

416 Pages·2008·3.13 MB·English

by  Douglas A. Blackmon

Praise for Douglas A. Blackmon's
S L A V E R Y
BY ANOTHER NAME
"Vividly and engagingly recalls the horror and sheer magnitude of…neo-slavery
and reminds us how long after emancipation such practices per sisted….
Provides insights on how we might regard the legacy of slavery, reparations, and
perhaps even our justice and correctional system, with echoes for our own time."
—The Boston Globe
"A terrific journalist and gifted writer, Blackmon is fearless in going wher ever
the research leads him."
—Atlanta Magazine
"Personalizing the larger story through individual experiences, Blackmon's book
opens the eyes and wrenches the gut."
—Rocky Mountain News
"For those who think the conversation about race or exploitation in Amer ica is
over, they should read Douglas Blackmon's cautionary tale, Slavery by Another
Name. It is at once provocative and thought-provoking, sobering and
heartrending."
—-Jay Winik, author of The Great Upheaval:
America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800
"A powerful and eye-opening account of a crucial but unremembered chapter of
American history. Blackmon's magnificent research paints a devastating picture
of the ugly and outrageous practices that kept tens of thousands of Black
Americans enslaved until the onset of World War II. Slavery by Another Name is
a passionate, highly impressive and hugely important book."
—David J. Garrow, author of
Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr.
and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
"Wall Street Journal Bureau Chief Blackmon gives a groundbreaking and dis
turbing account of a sordid chapter in American history—the lease (essen tially
the sale) of convicts to ‘commercial interests’ between the end of the nineteenth
century and well into the twentieth."
—Publishers Weekly
DOUGLAS A. BLACKMON
S L A V E R Y
BY ANOTHER NAME
Douglas A. Blackmon is the Atlanta Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal. He has written
extensively on race, the economy, and American society. Reared in the Mississippi Delta, he
lives in downtown Atlanta with his wife and children.
www.slaverybyanothername.com

To Michelle, Michael,
and Colette
Slavery:…that slow Poison, which is daily contaminating the
Minds & Morals of our People. Every Gentlemen here is born a petty
Tyrant. Practiced in Acts of Despotism & Cruelty, we become callous to
the Dictates of Humanity, & all the finer feelings of the Soul. Taught
to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject & contemptible
Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the
Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great & useful purposes.
1773
GEORGE MASON, JULY
VIRGINIA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
CONTENTS
A Note on Language
Introduction: The Bricks We Stand On
PART ONE: THE SLOW POISON
I. THE WEDDING
Fruits of Freedom
II. AN INDUSTRIAL SLAVERY
"Niggers is cheap."
III. SLAVERY’S INCREASE
"Day after day we looked Death in the face & was afraid to speak."
IV. GREEN COTTENHAM’S WORLD
"The negro dies faster."
PART TWO: HARVEST OF AN UNFINISHED WAR
V. THE SLAVE FARM OF JOHN PACE
"I don't owe you anything."
VI. SLAVERY IS NOT A CRIME
"We shall have to kill a thousand…
to get them back to their places."
VII. THE INDICTMENTS
"I was whipped nearly every day."
VIII. A SUMMER OF TRIALS, 1903
"The master treated the slave unmercifully."
IX. A RIVER OF ANGER
The South Is "an armed camp."
X. THE DISAPPROBATION OF GOD
"It is a very rare thing that a negro escapes."
XI. SLAVERY AFFIRMED
"Cheap cotton depends on cheap niggers."
XII. NEW SOUTH RISING
"This great corporation."
PART THREE: THE FINAL CHAPTER OF AMERICAN SLAVERY
XIII. THE ARREST OF GREEN COTTENHAM
A War of Atrocities
XIV. ANATOMY OF A SLAVE MINE
"Degraded to a plane lower than the brutes."
XV. EVERYWHERE WAS DEATH
"Negro Quietly Swung Up by an Armed Mob …All is quiet."
XVI. ATLANTA, THE SOUTH’S FINEST CITY
"I will murder you if you don't do that work."
XVII. FREEDOM
"In the United States one cannot sell himself."
EPILOGUE
The Ephemera of Catastrophe
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography