The connection of slavery and prison
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery except when an individual becomes a convicted felon, post emancipation convict labor became increasing popular with the Southern states in hopes of restoring the slave system, African Americans were convicted of “Black Code” type crimes which often brought tougher sentencing than those of the opposite race convicted of similar crimes. Abolitionists fought against the restoration of chattel slavery, slowly prison systems solved the problem of convict leasing, by using inmates for state funded projects only. This solution helped the prisons with overhead cost of inmates and