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Slavery by another name : the re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

by Blackmon, Douglas A.,

Format: Print Book 2009
Availability: Available at 4 Libraries 4 of 4 copies

Available (4)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Hill District Non-Fiction Collection E185.2.B545 2009
Location  CLP - Hill District
 
Collection  Non-Fiction Collection
 
Call Number  E185.2.B545 2009
 
 
Millvale Community Library Adult Non Fiction 305.89 BLA
Location  Millvale Community Library
 
Collection  Adult Non Fiction
 
Call Number  305.89 BLA
 
 
Scott Township Library Nonfiction 305.896 BLACKMON
Location  Scott Township Library
 
Collection  Nonfiction
 
Call Number  305.896 BLACKMON
 
 
Whitehall Public Library Nonfiction Collection NF 973.0496 B566
Location  Whitehall Public Library
 
Collection  Nonfiction Collection
 
Call Number  NF 973.0496 B566
 
 

Summary

This groundbreaking historical expose unearths the lost stories of enslaved persons and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude shortly thereafter in "The Age of Neoslavery."

By turns moving, sobering, and shocking, this unprecedented Pulitzer Prize-winning account reveals the stories of those who fought unsuccessfully against the re-emergence of human labor trafficking, the companies that profited most from neoslavery, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today.

Following the Emancipation Proclamation, convicts--mostly black men--were "leased" through forced labor camps operated by state and federal governments. Using a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history.

"An astonishing book. . . . It will challenge and change your understanding of what we were as Americans--and of what we are." -- Chicago Tribune

Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Wall Street Journal bureau chief Blackmon gives a groundbreaking and disturbing account of a sordid chapter in American history-the lease (essentially the sale) of convicts to "commercial interests" between the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th. Usually, the criminal offense was loosely defined vagrancy or even "changing employers without permission." The initial sentence was brutal enough; the actual penalty, "reserved almost exclusively for black men," was a form of slavery in one of "hundreds of forced labor camps" operated "by state and county governments, large corporations, small time entrepreneurs and provincial farmers." Into this history, Blackmon weaves the story of Green Cottenham, who was "charged with riding a freight train without a ticket," in 1908 and was sentenced to "three months of hard labor for Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad," a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. Cottenham's sentence was extended an additional three months and six days because he was unable to pay fines then leveraged on criminals. Blackmon's book reveals in devastating detail the legal and commercial forces that created this neoslavery along with deeply moving and totally appalling personal testimonies of survivors. "Every incident in this book is true," he writes; one wishes it were not so. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 19th century.
African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 20th century.
African Americans -- Employment -- History.
African Americans -- Crimes against -- History.
African American prisoners -- Social conditions.
Forced labor -- United States -- History.
Convict labor -- United States -- History.
Slavery -- United States -- History.
United States -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century.
United States -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century.
Publisher New York :Anchor Books,2009
Edition First Anchor books edition.
Language English
Notes Reprint. Originally published: New York : Doubleday, 2008.
Awards Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, 2009
Description x, 468 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
Bibliography Notes Includes bibliographical references (pages 407-459) and index.
ISBN 9780385722704
0385722702
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