In: Psychology
According to the New York Times Article
"Unearthing America's Second Slave Era" please describe the conditions
and circumstances of convict leasing. How does it compare with the
treatment of inmates today.
The slavery in the US did not end on Jan 01 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared it illegal but ended officially only in the year Dec 06 1865.
The local Fort Bend Independent School District began construction on a new school. Mr. Moore had started his research on Sugar Land’s slavery and convict-leasing history. During his finding, he was sure the bodies of former slaves and black prisoners were still buried in Sugar Land’s backyard. After receiving a warning from Mr. Moore of possibly having the body buried in that particular rectangular land an archaeologist was hired by the school authority while digging through, a backhoe operator fumbled upon something jutting out of the dirt it turned out to be human bone. On digging further it turned out to be a graveyard where 95 bodies were found buried, this is in Texas where it was thought that slavery had stopped. The Graves believed to be of Black American mostly slaves. Roughly two dozen intact skeletons were discovered an analyzed and it proved that all belong to African Americans. The African American was given tough work on the sugarcane plantation. The chain also recovered from the site indicating hard labor and slave system.
In Texas alone, 3500 prisoners have seemed to die between the years1862 to 1912. The test done on the bones reveals that out of 95 bodies roughly 30 are buried between the years 1912 to 1944. That shows after 50 years of abolishing slavery, it was very much present in the US and excavation in Texas proved right.
The African American slaves were subject to physical hardship, the scientist has discovered debilitating injuries, as well as bone infections, healed breaks, muscles torn away from the skeleton and bones cracked and many of them, have died of sickness. These findings gave a conclusion that they were staying in the most inhuman conditions and subject to hardship and cruel punishment, although slavery was abolished, it took years to get abolished from the system.