10/24/20

Slavery by Another Name Documentary/ Play Analysis- some of the questions answered for the
assignment

1. 3 laws that contributed to black men being disproportionately incarcerated

IT WAS A CRIME IN THE SOUTH FOR A FARM WORKER TO WALK BESIDE A

RAILROAD

IT WAS A CRIME IN THE SOUTH TO SPEAK LOUDLY IN THE COMPANY OF A

WHITE WOMEN

IT WAS A CRIME TO SELL YOUR PRODUCTS FROM YOUR FARM, AFTER DARK

ANY SIGN OF DRINKING, SPITTING OR BEING DRUNK IN PUBLIC OR

LOITERING IN PUBLIC SPACES COULD RESULT IN CONFINEMENT

MOST INFAMOUS LAW WERE THE "PIG LAWS" -ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR WHAT
HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN MISDEMEANOR OFFENSES TO FELONY OFFENSES
IN MISISSIPPI, THEFT OF A PIG COULD MEAN 5 YEARS IN PRISON
IN TENNESSEE,HARD LABOR MIGHT RESULT FEOM STEALING A 5 CENT FENCE RAIL.
( VAGRANCY STATUTES: IN ANY GIVEN SOUTHERN STATE, YOU BECAME A CRIMINAL,
IF YOU COULD NOT PROVE AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT THAT YOU WERE EMPLOYED)
MOST BLACK CRIME WAS PUNISHED BY SLAVEHOLDERS, AND WHITE CRIME WAS
PUNISHED BY THE COURTS, ONLY 10% OF PEOPLE ARRESTED WERE WHITES
IN THE SOUTHERN STATES, BLACK PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED CRIMES WERE
PLACED WITH INDUSTRIES THAT WOULD GUARD AND HOUSE THEM FOR THEIR
LABOR
STATES CHARGED FEES, RENTING PRISONERS TO COMPANIES BY THE MONTH
THE HIGHEST RATES WERE FOR THE STRONGEST WORKERS AND THE LONGEST
SENTENCES- SYSTEM KNOWN AS "CONVICT LEASING" NEW REVENUE FOR STATES
13TH AMENDMENT- LEAVES ROOM FOR EXTENDED SLAVERY WITH ANOTHER NAME,
"CAN'T BE PUT INTO SLAVEY, UNLESS PUNISHMENT FOR A CRIME
LEASED CONVICTS TO PRIVATE INDUSTRIES
1884- SERIES OF LETTERS SENT FROM PRATT COAL LINES TO ALABAMA'S NEW
INSPECTOR OF PRISONS/ EZEKIAL ARCHIE WAS THE AUTHOR
HAD THEM WORK IN MINES AND FACTORIES/ NEW INDUSTRIAL SOUTH
MANUFACTURING IRON
SOUTHERN COVICT CAMPS
CONVICT MINORS COST 50 TO 80 PERCENT LESS THAN FREE MINORS AND COULD
WORK 6 DAYS A WEEK
IN MANY LABOR CAMPS ABOUT A THIRD OF MALE CONVICTS WERE UNDER 16
BLACK WOMEN (DUE TO CONVICT LEASING) WERE WORKING IN BRICK YARDS, IN
TURPENTINE CAMPS, MINING CAMPS, FARMS, LUMBER YARDS,
CONVICT LEASING-
BEING MOUTHY OR UPPITY WOULD GET YOU ARRESTED
IN THE FALL, WHEN IT WAS TIME TO PICK COTTON, MANY AFRICAN AMERICANS
WERE ARRESTED IN THE COTTON GROWING COUNTIES
SURGES OF ARRESTS IN ALABAMA, DAYS BEFORE A LABOR AGENT FROM
BIRMINGHAM WOULD VISIT TO pick up the convicts
By 1890's, white voters had reversed the civil rights gained during reconstruction, New
STATE Constitutions kept black people from voting booths, and limited funding for black
schools, racial segregation was mandated by LAW
Supreme Court also upheld racial segregation, plessy v. ferguson
Peonage-debt
Farmers who all had their own corrupt justices of the peace-John Pace, Fletcher Turner
and William and George Cosby were ring leaders, they had their own justice of peace
convict people who they wanted to be declared guilty

NAACP-W.E.B Dubois
400,000 black people fought in World War 1
Chainganging, sharecropping
Black sharecroppers not allowed to leave farms they worked on, would be returned to
farms, chained up and get no pay

Franklin Roosevelt enforces 13th Amendment

5 days after pearl harbor, dec 1941, Roosevelt's Attorney General issued circular
3591,federal attorneys were to regressively prosecute any case of involuntary servitude
or slavery, disregarding their debt

2. How does the documentary end?

Green Cottonham, never made it out of Birmingham prison mines, died, among
more 9,000 prisoners to have died while leased to industries in southern states
and county's
Tonya Groomes (descendant) went to his grave, talked about how someone's
child could get picked up by white and sold to industries and they would never
see them again, this affected whole segment of people., PRISONERS BODIES
DUMPED BY MINE, GREEN REPRESENTS NAMELESS. FACELESS PEOPLE WHO
 WERE DEEMED TO HAVE NO VALUE BUT HE HAS VALUE IN HIS STORY. (WHAT
TONYA SAID) BLACK MEN WALKING IN CHAINS
SPEAKER, SAYS AT END OF CIVLIL WAR 4 MILLION FREED SLAVES LIVED IN
POVERTY, UNEDUCATED, EQUAL NUMBER OF WHITES WERE IN POVERTY TOO.
AT END OF WORLD WAR 2, THOSE 4 MILLION POOR WHITES BECAME 40
MILLION MIDDLE CLASS CITIZENS IN THE NEXT 75 YEARS, BUT LEFT BLACKS
OUT OF THIS INCREASE, EXCLUDED AND BRUTALIZED AFRICAN AMERICANS
IN THIS PROCESS,
Speaker said that without knowing the history of nation or appreciating whites go
into fantasy that blacks don't deserve freedom/ equal rights because black people are
(they think we are) constitutionally, morally, intellectually are not equals of whites
Motivation to brutalizing black people is profit and that part of the dark history of
America is still with us, "the ark of history is long, but it ends towards justice" said by
Green COTTENHAM descendants, ended with scene of black laborers walking sound of
clanking and chains, showed

3. What does "Slavery by Another Name" Mean/ Where does the title come from?