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

Douglas A. Blackmon

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Jan 6, 2009 - History - 496 pages

This groundbreaking historical expose unearths the lost stories of enslaved persons and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude shortly thereafter in “The Age of Neoslavery.”

By turns moving, sobering, and shocking, this unprecedented Pulitzer Prize-winning account reveals the stories of those who fought unsuccessfully against the re-emergence of human labor trafficking, the companies that profited most from neoslavery, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today.

Following the Emancipation Proclamation, convicts—mostly black men—were “leased” through forced labor camps operated by state and federal governments. Using a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history.

“An astonishing book. . . . It will challenge and change your understanding of what we were as Americans—and of what we are.” —Chicago Tribune

Contents

• THE SLOW POISON: 11
• AN INDUSTRIAL SLAVERY: 39
• SLAVERYS INCREASE: 58
• GREEN COTTENHAMS WORLD: 84
• THE SLAVE FARM OF JOHN PACE: 117
• We shall have to kill a thousand: 155
• THE INDICTMENTS: 181
• A SUMMER OF TRIALS 1903: 217
• A RIVER OF ANGER: 233
• THE DISAPPROBATION OF: 246
• SLAVERY AFFIRMED: 270
• NEW SOUTH RISING: 278
• THE ARREST OF GREEN COTTENHAM: 299
• ANATOMY OF A SLAVE MINE: 310
• EVERYWHERE WAS DEATH: 324
• ATLANTA THE SOUTHS FINEST CITY: 338
• FREEDOM: 371
• The Ephemera of Catastrophe: 383
• Acknowledgments: 404
• Selected Bibliography: 444
• Index: 460

About the author

A native of Leland, Mississippi, Doug Blackmon is the Wall Street Journal's Atlanta Bureau Chief. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and their two children.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
• Author: Douglas A. Blackmon
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009
• ISBN: 0307472477, 9780307472472
• Length: 496 pages
• Subjects: History / Essays; History / United States / 19th Century; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies