It is a common conception in the US that slavery is outlawed in the US with the passing of the 13th amendment. It was, after all, what the Civil War and Republicans were supposedly fighting over. But there is something interesting that comes about when we look at the 13th amendment and the 5th amendment.
The 13th Amendment says:
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.
The 5th Amendment says:
No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
It should be clear that if due processes of law is being applied to you, then the outcome of it could be of you become a slave, or involuntary servant, of the federal government. But this would also, by the 14th amendments application, hold with the states. Thus, both the federal government and state governments still allow for slavery or involuntary servitude, but this applies only to the class of people who were convicted under due process of law. This means that those people in jails are the slaves or servants of the government. You do what the government tells you, when the government tells you, and how the government tells you. The government is now their master and they are now the governments slave or servant.
Those shows on MSNBC about what happens in some jails in the US, those prisoner guards are looking after and keeping in line the slaves of either the Federal governments slaves or servants or the State governments slaves or servants. The US has also risen to one of the countries with the most prisoners, i.e. slaves, in the world. We even, it appears, have more slaves than a communist nation like China or former communist nation like Russia.
Now say what you want, it is interesting whether you look at it as the people in jail, i.e. prisoners, are slaves/servants of the government or if you look at it as the people in jail, i.e. prisoners, are slaves/servants of the American people. Since it is “We the People” who run the government or are in charge of the government, then those are our slaves or servants. Which of these stands out more, that American Citizens become property of the government or the American Citizens become slaves of the People, or even property of the People?
Slavery, or serfdom, have not left America. But what is interesting is how some private corporations have moved in to taking care of the slaves of the federal or state governments, or taking care of the People’s slaves or property. The American government, or state government, pay private corporations to take care of their private property, which happen to be other human beings. What is even more interesting is that the American government happens to turn more black people into slaves than they do white people, at least based on the racial make up of jails in the US. So the 13th amendment gave “private citizens” slaves freedom, and yet the Federal government was still in the business of slavery and helped to make those who are decedents of the freed slaves to become slaves of the government instead of another private citizen.
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