Review: Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Blackmon makes the case in his 400 page historical commentary that ten years after the emancipation of slaves, African American’s few freedoms were again taken away. He follows the Cottenham family generation by generation, first outlining their great-grandfather Green who was torn from his African motherland and placed into antebellum slavery. After Abraham Lincoln’s venture to end slavery, the next generation of Cottenhams were given the opportunity to vote and receive a small tract of land. Unfortunately, certain Southern states who were crippled by the war such as Alabama and Mississippi knew the only way to rebuild their lands was through the re-enslavement of their African neighbors. To work around the new anti-slavery laws, states such as Alabama would arrest any and all young African males who they deemed as miscreants. Black males were detested in Southern society since they always played the antagonist role, but were also essential to the vitality of the South’s economy. Once these men were in custody, the booming mines would purchase them for an inconsequential fee. Working twelve to fourteen hour days, many of these men were treated far worse in this form of peonage-slavery than ever before during the antebellum era. More often viewed as simple possessions that could be discarded and replaced, countless slaves died from inhumane treatment as well as harsh working conditions. Blackmon estimate that over 50,000 men are buried in mass graves all throughout the South.
Unfortunately, the repercussions of antebellum slavery did not end there. All throughout the South, those blacks who remained free were subjected to the injustices of the wealthiest whites in their county. Although African Americans generally held 90% of the population, the whites maintained the power and expected their former slaves to only sell their produce and cotton to them at a stipulated rate. In return, these mistreated blacks could only purchase the goods they needed from their former owners. In doing so, blacks were still trapped in a systemic cycle of economic and psychological injustice. They could not get ahead, nor were allowed the option of leaving in an attempt to search for better opportunities. What was even worse was the rationalization behind the South’s mindset to keep blacks in their present condition. From Darwinian evolution to Biblical references, the South defended their views that African Americans functioned best as inferior to whites in every way. These injustices went on from the late 1860’s all the way until the early 1940’s.


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