Juneteenth, the 13th Amendment, and the Rebranding of Slavery Since 1865
“So, has slavery truly ended or merely been rebranded over the last 159 years?”
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order known as the Emancipation Proclamation granted legal freedom to slaves in the Confederate states. However, slaves in Galveston, Texas were not notified of their independence until nearly two years later on June 19, 1865–what is now known colloquially as Juneteenth. On Thursday, June 17, 2021, President Biden signed S.475, “The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act”, into law; there by, making it a legal federal holiday. However, lest we forget two important concepts surrounding America’s original sin and its timeline.
First, neither the Emancipation Proclamation nor the announcement on Juneteenth rendered slavery illegal. It was not until the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America in December 1865 that slavery was considered illegal.
Second, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and indentured servitude except as punishment for a crime. The details of the amendment are not commonly known to most Americans. It’s official wording in the Constitution is as follows:
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 jurisdiction.
“…except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted” is the loophole that has been studied by historians and scholars and likely exploited over the last 156 years. Many scholars have debated on whether slavery has truly ended or merely been rebranded. There are numerous books, essays, and films demonstrating a through line from the 13th Amendment to mass incarceration and the expoential growth of the prison-industrial complex. This concept was beautifully delineated in the 2016 Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, directed by the inimitable Ava Duvernay. The concepts of mass incarceration and convict leasing were even part of the 1999 comedy Life starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, in which two innocent Black men are given a lifetime sentence, in a Mississippi prison, for a crime they didn’t commit. And finally, convict leasing was also part of the 1994 classic The Shawshank Redemption when at the direction of Warden Norton, the inmates were depolyed to work for the state outside the walls of imprisionment.
In conclusion, as we commemorate the Juneteenth holiday, lest we not forget that slavery was not abolished legally until the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865; in addition, one can draw a direct connection between the wording in this amendment, mass incarceration, and the rise of the prison-industrial complex. So, has slavery truly ended or merely been rebranded over the last 159 years?