Thirteenth Amendment

Although the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution formally abolished U.S. slavery, it includes a terrible exception: permitting slavery and involuntary servitude as “punishment for crime,” allowing governments, prisons, and the companies contracting with them to “hire” and exploit incarcerated workers as they see fit.

The Thirteenth Amendment's loophole was first exploited during the wake of the Civil War with “Black Codes” laws enabling the arrest of Black Americans for vague offenses like “vagrancy” and forcing them into involuntary servitude.

The United States has made momentous strides toward improving protections and conditions for workers since the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865.

The best way to finally end slavery in America is to remove the slavery exception from the Thirteenth Amendment.

Considered the first memoir of anyone, black or white, who ever served in the White House, the book appeared in 1865, the same year that the Civil War ended and the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery forever in America, was added to the U.S.