The thing about peonage is they kept people forever. That was the big problem. Putting a definitive end date on a sentence made it magically better. I agree that forced labor is slavery, I’m just referencing the dying gasp of the actual plantation system. While we should eliminate prison slave labor, it’s also nowhere near what the peonage system was.
They did exactly that. Right up until the 1940’s when FDR’s Department of Justice went after them.
They’re still doing it, like there are still prison plantations in Louisiana where they send black people for having half a joint on them.
The thing about peonage is they kept people forever. That was the big problem. Putting a definitive end date on a sentence made it magically better. I agree that forced labor is slavery, I’m just referencing the dying gasp of the actual plantation system. While we should eliminate prison slave labor, it’s also nowhere near what the peonage system was.
Things being worse previously does not make what is now any better. Raise your standards.
That’s not the point there.