duchess harris A LETTER FROM DUCHESS The Thirteenth Amendment is one of the most important acts in the legal history of the United States It is often said that the amendment abolished slavery But its legacy is more complicated than that The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery except as a form of punishment Southerners seized on this loophole They unjustly arrested thousands of Black people Black convicts were forced to do hard unpaid labor In this way slavery was reconstructed in the South Freedom is a fascinating concept Today Black people are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white people Are they then truly free Who profits from the inmates unpaid or underpaid labor This book aims to answer these questions It explains the events that led to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment It also explores how the amendment’s loophole led to the mass incarceration of African Americans today Please join me in learning about the Thirteenth Amendment and its legacy Follow me on a journey that examines the idea of freedom 4
African Americans celebrated the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 5
CHAPTER ONE 6
A NATION DIVIDED on June 15 1864 159 members of the US House of Representatives were gathered in Washington DC It was a hot summer day Representatives waved fans to cool themselves They had been debating for hours The issue at hand was a constitutional amendment An amendment is a change or an addition to the US Constitution If this amendment passed it would outlaw slavery in the United States The House of Representatives and the Senate both have to vote on an amendment The House and the Senate make up the US Congress The Senate had already voted in US representatives meet in the US Capitol building in Washington DC 7
