The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

Provides information that has not been reported that can help us all understand what happened to Black people in this country and the implications for the future as well as repeating it in the present. It is a very time read. I wish educators, especially history teachers would read this book as they are the front line in providing perspective to the rest of us.

The depth of Blackmon's research is beyond impressive; his writing is precise; and the story that emerges is one of singular import -- a look at a enormous, barbaric and wide-spread crime against humanity carried out for three-quarters of a century following the Civil War for purposes of individual, governmental, and industrial profit. Blackmon also makes a strong case for how numerous societal evils arose as ramifications and justifications of the peonage practices. Blackmon sifts through court records, grand jury investigations, diaries, family memories, clippings -- every record he can in order to bring human faces to the staggering statistics he places before the reader. The inconceivable level of horror he uncovers at operation after operation, from coal mines to turpentine camps is genuinely disturbing, troubling to the conscience of readers with a sense of justice or morality. It is an unflinching history like John Hersey's "Hiroshima" that causes one to ask rhetorically, "My God, what have we done?" It should be a part of any course on Civil War American and its aftermath, American labor, and civil rights.

This is a breath taking factual journey through a dark and hidden period of American history. For anyone who thought that slavery ended with the Civil War, this book will make you think again. Recommended for anyone interested in race in America.

This history was never taught in my school. It should have been. An enlightening tale of the use of the legal system and capitalism (together) to deny people their rights and extend/further entrench the ideals/legacy of white supremacy. I learned a new word- peonage.

An amazing work of research by Mr. Blackmon. The writer adroitly interweaves a man named Green Cottenham who died in the slave mines around Birmingham, Alabama in his early twenties. A man buried in an unmarked grave at the beginning of the twentieth century and long lost to history. The writer resurrect's this young man's past ancestry dating back to a slave born in Africa around 1802 named Scipio and raised as a slave in Alabama. The writer uses this young man as a vehicle to expose the tragedy that befell the freed slaves for the next 90 years. A historical part of America that few Americans knew existed in the "black belt," of the deep south.Instead of a dry historical book showing the state and federal laws and court decisions allowing this American tragedy, it reads like a succulent novel, ending in the twenty-first century when writer locates ancestors today still living in the "new south," and the endearing conversations that he encounters. Also, interviews with wealthy prominent southern white's who made untold millions off this "neo-slavery," and the candid remarks by these business mogul's will surprise the reader . If you enjoyed Ms. Alexander's book, "The New Jim Crow-Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," you'll enjoy this book.

I was fascinated by the story the author told. This is a part of history that more people need to know about. It explains why some things are as they are. It demonstrates why it's important to resist privatization of prisons and dehumanization of those behind bars.

Brilliant, painful and necessary history of the re-enslavement of black Americans between the end of the Civil War and WWII. ( If you purchase the Kindle version, however, you won't be able to click on a footnote in the text to call up the reference; I hope this flaw will be corrected eventually.) This is a well documented account of the horrible "convict leasing" system that replaced formal slavery: blacks were charged with petty or non-existent offenses throughout the South, slapped with fees and fines they could not pay, then leased to large corporations, coal mines, railroads,lumber / turpentine camps as well as plantations to pay off the largely bogus "debts." The new slaves were viciously treated, whipped, water-boarded,dressed in rags, over-worked and underfed while corporations grew rich on this forced labor. County sheriffs, judges and those who sold and re-sold the "convicts" split the fees for the ( largely false) arrests, false testimony and court fees. A heart-breaking book I could not put down.

This story changed my viewpoint on America...it is one of the most intense historical book I have ever read.This book stuns you as you read though the story of the neo-slavery movement in the south that lasted 80 to about 100 years (depending on your definition of economic slavery) after the end of the civil war. This book stuns you as you watch and feel for a people without hope and endless misery keep hoping for an end to their stuggle.
Blackmon does an excellent job writing a grim story in an intense and interesting way that not only informs you but keeps you at the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. He highlights the names of the victims but also the crusaders that tried to stop this monstrosity , the largely forgotten crusaders who should be the heros of the civil rights movements of the past. Like who knows about District Attorney Reese of Alabama and his fight to end slavery in the south (1903), well after this book you will know of him.Sad to say there is not much in the way of stories directly from the mouth of the African victims..but the author does just that in using historical evidence to paint a picture too well.
Sad to say most Americans do not want to hear about this dark part of history but when you hear that Alabama wants to bring back the chain gangs, after you read this book you will see that history can repeat itself(chaingangs is a return of slavery) and if we are aware of the past mistakes maybe we can stop them from happening again.
Just the other day I heard the country was celebrating the emancipation and the freedom from slavery at the end of the civil war. After reading this book you will realize what an empty celebration that it is and that it celebrates a lie. Its too bad that others do not know this lie...but I do ..all too well from reading this wonderfull book that changed my life.

A well-researched book. I am researching my family the Whitfields in Alabama and came across a convict list dated 1879, I did'nt really understand what it meant till I read this book! Being slave owners of over 4000 slaves in 1860 and over 12 plantations from NC to Texas. One Whitfield even wrote Lincoln. And a Whitfield was married to Andrew Cargnie of U. S. Steel. How could they give all that up? They did'nt, they did it in another name.
He has won the Pulitizer for this book and he deserves it. America has alot of denial about it's history. I have found in researching that people black and white don't want to talk about what really happened. Until we are honest with each other we cannot heal of it. Slavery by another name goes along way in being honest about it. I have read 1000's of history books on Slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, Minnesota(where I'm from). This has been one of the best!

I have watched "Slavery By Any Other Name" several times and am looking forward to reading the book. It stands next to "Worse Than Slavery" (about Parchman Farm), the movies "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "Beloved, and to bracket the period "The Great Flood of 1927" and "Deep Blues" as essential reading for blues fans.

After 16 years of collecting oral history on or about Mississippi Delta country bluesmen Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Lockwood Jr. and Robert Johnson, born 1912, 1915 and 1914 (part of the legendary blues "Class of 1915"), I am convinced that blues emerged more from the Reconstruction experience than slavery.

In slavery, the slaves knew what to expect (fair or unfair) from their "masters;" knew their "place" and where they were going to get their next meal. In America, their musical life was more the musical life of the masters who needed fiddlers and other musicians to play the European-American music their masters brought with them to the New World.

In Reconstruction and especially after the enactment of the 1874 pig laws which allowed incarceration for stealing or being accused of stealing anything subject to incarceration and application of excessive fines to be jailed and then leased to farmers, mine owners and others as "convict labor." A man Black who was not "working" (such as walking along a road while Black) could be "arrested," "charged," jailed and sold off to be worked to death.

Slavery offered order and memories of slave life but Reconstruction added anarchy as the "new normal," a world unknown "masters" and/or judge, jury and executioners, and no safe place for a family unit to be raised. Add that to the prospect of being subject to disappearing into a world of forced labor never to be heard from again by your family.

Chris Rock once said "Whites look back, Blacks look forward." It's the difference between a funeral and a home-going service like a New Orleans "second-line" celebration.

During slavery, Blacks looked toward freedom; during reconstruction they looked forward to building their own control over their work (which evolved into the sharecropper system); during the first half of the 20th century they looked forward to better pay in The North, The Promised Land. Few Black looked back wistfully to slavery, leased convict labor and prison farms, sharecropping or the days of segregation. They seldom told their children about where they had came from and concentrated on how they could reach the next stage: "moving on up" from The Jeffersons, "if the world don't put an end to this terrible sin [racism] the world will be aflame, what a terrible shame" Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone To Love," and Rev. James Cleveland's "I ain't no way tired."

Slavery By Another Name is painful to read. It is cleanly written, for the most part, but the continuation of virtual slavery in the US South that only began to recede with the advent of WW2 makes it grim slogging. But slog away, dear reader, because you need to know what is in this book, which , in my opinion, deserves and will receive a number of literary and historical awards this year.

I have watched "Slavery By Any Other Name" several times and am looking forward to reading the book. It stands next to "Worse Than Slavery" (about Parchman Farm), the movies "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "Beloved, and to bracket the period "The Great Flood of 1927" and "Deep Blues" as essential reading for blues fans.

After 16 years of collecting oral history on or about Mississippi Delta country bluesmen Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Lockwood Jr. and Robert Johnson, born 1912, 1915 and 1914 (part of the legendary blues "Class of 1915"), I am convinced that blues emerged more from the Reconstruction experience than slavery.

In slavery, the slaves knew what to expect (fair or unfair) from their "masters;" knew their "place" and where they were going to get their next meal. In America, their musical life was more the musical life of the masters who needed fiddlers and other musicians to play the European-American music their masters brought with them to the New World.

In Reconstruction and especially after the enactment of the 1874 pig laws which allowed incarceration for stealing or being accused of stealing anything subject to incarceration and application of excessive fines to be jailed and then leased to farmers, mine owners and others as "convict labor." A man Black who was not "working" (such as walking along a road while Black) could be "arrested," "charged," jailed and sold off to be worked to death.

Slavery offered order and memories of slave life but Reconstruction added anarchy as the "new normal," a world unknown "masters" and/or judge, jury and executioners, and no safe place for a family unit to be raised. Add that to the prospect of being subject to disappearing into a world of forced labor never to be heard from again by your family.

Chris Rock once said "Whites look back, Blacks look forward." It's the difference between a funeral and a home-going service like a New Orleans "second-line" celebration.

During slavery, Blacks looked toward freedom; during reconstruction they looked forward to building their own control over their work (which evolved into the sharecropper system); during the first half of the 20th century they looked forward to better pay in The North, The Promised Land. Few Black looked back wistfully to slavery, leased convict labor and prison farms, sharecropping or the days of segregation. They seldom told their children about where they had came from and concentrated on how they could reach the next stage: "moving on up" from The Jeffersons, "if the world don't put an end to this terrible sin [racism] the world will be aflame, what a terrible shame" Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone To Love," and Rev. James Cleveland's "I ain't no way tired."

Slavery By Another Name is painful to read. It is cleanly written, for the most part, but the continuation of virtual slavery in the US South that only began to recede with the advent of WW2 makes it grim slogging. But slog away, dear reader, because you need to know what is in this book, which , in my opinion, deserves and will receive a number of literary and historical awards this year.

Solid research but it overwhelms the reader with the volume. It has a valid point of view on the methods used in forcing African-Americans to work as virtual slaves in the post-civil war South, but it reads like an article in a scholarly journal. Not for the casual reader. Maybe the video by the same name would meet the need better.

This book has profoundly shaken my view of my country. I am a white comfortable baby boomer, troubled by today's continuing racial issues but until now had thought that the worst crimes of our history were back in the 19th century. This story is not only exponentially worse than pre-Civil War slavery, it also reaches directly to our own era, the lifetimes of my parents. Comparisons to the Holocaust are not exaggerations: this was a nationwide system that rounded people up, charged them with non-existent crimes and sent them to their deaths after squeezing forced labor. Unlike the Holocaust, this crime against humanity lasted for almost a century. Northerners may not have directly participated but they certainly knew and benefitted. And similarly, many look away from this history and even deny its veracity. I wish this book was a mandatory history textbook. It explains so much of today's issues.