Importance Of Hidden History

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Why is it important to document hidden histories? Before viewing Slavery by Another Name (2012), I was not fully aware of the atrocities committed against African Americans after slavery had been abolished. I knew that newly freed slaves had a hard time adjusting to freedom, but I never fathomed the oppression and torment they were subjected to as free Americans. My history classes throughout my education never included information regarding involuntary servitude and laws that were created to deliberately re-enslave African Americans and prevent them from having mobility. I was also not aware of re-enslavement and peonage. Learning about the hidden history of such despicable practices gives one further insight to racism and new respect …show more content…
The conditions were more even more deplorable and treatment more brutal than actual slavery. Eventually leasing prisoners, chain gangs, peonage and sharecropping was outlawed, but nothing was ever recorded and justice was never served for the individuals who endured such horrific conditions with many losing their lives. The revelation of this hidden history grants them justice in a small way. Cultural history that is shared between diversified people enables communication lines to be formulated and utilized in productive and respectful ways. The criminalization of African Americans was an indirect result of the justification of white laws that unfairly imprisoned thousands of people for capitalist profits gained through the use of prison labor. American society may well have had a different attitude toward racism in general if this hidden history was common knowledge.
Why are certain histories hidden or difficult to …show more content…
African American people were so mistreated, abused, politically deprived and denied their rights as citizens, manipulated and brutalized back into slavery in order for business to profit. There were laws that were created and enforced to create convicted felons that were for the most part innocent, who could then be leased and sold to companies and landowners to be used for hard labor. The cost of attaining these workers was very little and it was economically in their best interest to work them to death without concern; they were easily and inexpensively replaced. These practices were justified according to the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution (1865) which declared that: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their

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