Thanks again for the tremendous reception for the book
I’ve heard from dozens of readers in response to the broadcasts on C-Span of one my presentations about Slavery by Another Name. It’s tremendous that so many people are ready and even anxious for a more candid discussion about these terrible events in U.S. history in the early 20th century.
As I’ve traveled, discussing the book and meeting readers, a stream of African-Americans have related to me how the book made them reassess their own family histories–and the stories of ancestors or acquaintances. Like Phillip Johnson, and so many others on the blog, an African-American woman who talked to me after a speech in Atlanta today, a letter from Virginia that just arrived–so many people tell me they were uncertain about, or never believed, accounts passed down by forebears which seemed to suggest that families were still being held as neo-slaves in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Then they read the book and realize that in fact the old stories are very likely to be true–that thousands of people were living in a state of involuntary servitude well into the lives of millions of Americans who are still alive today.
The discussions I’ve been had over the weeks since the book appeared have been powerful and moving. And with all due respect, they have forcefully contradicted the assertions of a few readers and posters on this blog that it is a mistake to bring forth these terrible aspects of our past.
The reality is that again and again I have experienced marvelously honest conversations in which African-Americans often appeared slightly astonished that whites in the room were able to discuss this past without defensiveness or anger, and in which whites found it remarkable that their black counterparts weren’t hammering them with historic crimes, but expressing thanks that it was finally being honestly discussed.
All of these things convince me that America has arrived at a remarkable moment, when a frank and full accounting of the past is possible for the first time, without the recriminations and denial that have characterized so much of our national discourse on race in the past. It has been thrilling to see that conversation unfold in so many venues over the past two months. Thank you all for being part of it.
(By the way, I’ll soon be updating the calendar of events for the rest of the summer. I’ll be in Washington D.C. at some point in July, back again on Oct. 5; National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta in late July; in New York during September; Universty of Virginia in late October; and several more. Details coming soon.)
DAB
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I watched the PBS documentary, “Slavery by Another Name” last night and found it incredibly insightful, as well as sad. Thank you for bringing the stories and this shameful history of our Country to light. I grew up in Alaska and moved to Mississippi as a teenager in the 70’s, and I have never really understood the hatred and distrust of both African Americans and whites that still exists here in the South. Like most, I believed the history books, and had no idea what actually happened after the end of the civil war. The documentary was a true eye opener.
I just saw the PBS broadcast of “Slavery by Another Name.” Some extraordinary new ground broken here. I’m not too surprised about the extent of the exploitation or the lynchings, but the systematic nature of the exploitation of slave labor by major corporations was a surprise.
Another thing struck me, because I thought I knew the Constitution. I am sure the Thirteenth Amendment is almost always presented in grade school to high school as a great triumph of the Civil War, but somehow its escape clause for the defeated South just is literally invisible if you don’t stop and really look at it. Now in light of this book, it will be seen. Any law is apt to be a bit obscure until that which was made in a political process gets turned into reality in practice. But someone put in the clause, didn’t they? And someone taught generations of kids that this was a Northern victory. Would that be the same system that benefitted from slavery in the first place – including the cotton mills of the North? What are the deeper motives? I’m still curious as to why New England encouraged abolitionists while at the same time profiting from those mills. Could it be that it was just trying to keep up with England in its outlawing of slavery? Could it be that the US just wanted to present itself as civilized, so that slave auctions and such would not be so public anymore?
Another interesting thing came about at the end of the show. People who were descendants of men taken into peonage described the pain of their circumstances in this unfree South even a generation after the election of FDR pretty much changed the picture. Then you find out at the very end that not only are they highly articulate witnesses, but also people of accomplishment and high status in today’s America.
It’s a two-edged sword however: sure, there is escape from those earlier circumstances, but always the feeling that not only should it never have happened but that some did not have the good fortune to rise out of the bad circumstances yet. And as many high profile arrests have shown (for instance, that of Professor Henry Louis Gates at his own front door in Cambridge, Mass.) the general prejudices of the society do not go away so fast.
We also cannot discount sheer racial prejudice for some critiques of our current President. On the other hand, there are some policies of our country which he has not changed, which deny due process of law. Few US Presidents have ever been able to exercise the kind of power FDR was able to use at a critical point (and since it was caused partly by war, it is ironic that this war allowed the same administration to deprive Japanese-Americans of their civil rights on the basis of fear and prejudice).
The only conclusion I can come to is that our country is a work in progress and that humans are prone to serious mistakes and sometimes wanton cruelty.
Thank you for bringing this national shame to PBS, the impact of this american Holocaust still echos through our society today in so many ways we have yet to make this country whole. Such a shocking revelation.
While growing up in the 1970’s, my cousin who was a WWII veteran , use to tell me about his experiences growing up in Yazoo City, Mississippi. I never will forget those stories. One of the stories he told was about when he was a kid, folks would find black men dead on the train tracks. He said he was youngster and he thought they were just to dumb or drunk to get across the tracks before the train came. Then one day, he said he realized these black me were killed somewhere else and then laid on the tracks. How horrible!! Growing up when I did and in Ohio, I never knew the kind of fear of whites that he had. But, we tend to want to think that when slavery ended in 1865, black folks just became free with all the rights and privliedges we know and we forget and, painfully, do not want to think about what our parents and their parents lives were like up until say 1965.
I have your book and have referred to it in my own research. Slavery seems to crop up continually through time. Right now, we have trafficking in humans, involving some 27 million slaves, chattel slavery is various less developed nations, and of course “New Age Slavery,” our 2.3 million prisoners in the USA right now. Slavery is more than one institution, but another name for extreme human domination by other humans. If we live in a law-abiding society with designated rights, it is supposed to be non-existent; but the ideal and reality often diverge, as your book shows clearly.
As a Birmingham attorney, I have heard an old, old tale told of a judge who let convicted defendants roll the dice for their sentence in number of months (i.e. 2 to 12 months). I believe these arrests & convictions were from the gambling events set up by law enforcement at the time to create convict laborers. The arbitrariness of the sentencing was rationalized because the defendants were convicted of participating in illegal dice games, though we know from probability that the sentences averaged 7 months. This is one of the handed-down stories in our Bar Association.
I appreciate and I would like to say, “Thank you” for the facts that you have re-introduced the harsh reality of the black hearts of men to and new generation and the world. I knew to a limited extent to the history of my fore grandparents.There were stories told of how the white man treated my fore grandparents, but not in the unadulterated detailed facts you have brought to light in your book. For far to long we (black people) have been catching hell all over this country and the world for years. Few and far between a small amount of my brothas and siatahs have achieved great some accomplishments, but it hasn’t changed anything nor has it taken the negative stigmas that have been created about us away. We have been and continue to be ignored for various reasons and those of them who were and are in positions to make a difference should be ashamed of themselves. You told the TRUTH and dared to put it in print. “Thank you!” You have put many many many things in perspective and many many things make since to me even more so now. Can’t wait to see this come to life on PBS. Once more “Thank you!”
Thanks for your email reports, especially the news that a PBS television documentary is in the works. Too few of us know the history you report in this book, and understand the longterm effects we continue to live with as a result.
I must add my voice to the chorus, “Thank-you”. I too heard the stories as a child, that “men went missing, and never returned to their families. Imagine too, while only a few pages into your book, finding my own name there “Gardner” (I am from Alabama). It brought tears to my eyes and I had to put the book down. After spending my early years in the south, I didn’t have to read these words to know they were true, but reading them helped “validate” us as a people. No one HEARS black people. We are treated like children (to be seen and not heard. To be used and then discarded like trash. No “we” don’t believe we’re trash, others do. After reading books like “Slavery By Another Name and King Leopold’s Ghost (among others), I (trying to speak for my people), MUST believe in God. I must. I must believe that there is justice somewhere. To not believe in God would mean that insanity is the norm. Again…..”Thank-you”
Vagrancy ain’t just an american or southern issue. In my country (Finland) there was a system until 1930’s where children of poor families were saled for labour to those whom town or county had to pay as less as possible. It was before wellfare state era. In many cases those children were treated in horrible conditions while not always. They were dependented on “good will” of their new owners. And nobody – of course – in Finland is claiming that we have had once any slavery system.
Thank you for taking the time to research this material. You mentioned in one interview that Black people have always known this in their hearts, and that is absolutely true. I was raised in the inner city and was taught the standard public school education, and it wasn’t until much later that I realized how much history was purposely left out. When I began to do my own research into the Black experience, I was saddened, shocked, horrified and angry all at once. Yet, I always suspected these things took place in my heart. What angers me the most is the fact that people choose to ignore these facts of history. Rather than feel any possible guilt, they would rather frame history in a way that puts the blame back on the victim, or ignore that it happened altogether. People may have expressed their disappointment in the fact that you are white, but I am thankful that you are. Unfortunately, had this information come from a black man, I fear it would have been discredited and overlooked. People would have assumed you were only out to promote the hated idea of reparations, which is an instant turn-off.
I thank you again for this book. I look forward to the upcoming PBS special.
I caught a bit of your discussion of your book on TV and subsequently went out and purchased your book. At first I was hesitant to buy the book as I thought that reading it would bring up feelings of anger, however it didn’t. What it did was “break my heart” as I see how cruelly men can treat other men and at what lengths they would go to to do just that. I am well aware that a key component in the Atlantic slave trade originated with Africans selling other Africans to the slavers. Being a black man of multi-racial background (Belize) I thought of the movie Apocolyto and concluded that the mayans would have sold off their conquered rivals to foreigners as well if given the opportunity. That said, money is the root of many evils, however, the cruelness inflicted upon freed slaves and the governments indifference to this treatment (persecution, genocide, pick one) makes me realize just how frogile freedom is. When Bill Clinton apologized to Americans of African descent for the USA’s slavery trade, there were a buch of people who became very upset about that. Hopefully they were ignorant to the facts as if there is anyobe who reads this book and does not feel that Americans of African descent are owed a world of apology, they are truely heartless and to be feared. I say as African Americans, we need to do all we can to 1) succeed, 2) ensure our children are well educated, 3) eradicate the use of the N word 4) hold our heads up! As we have survived being subjected to every possible horror and are still here today!! There is no shame being the descendant of slaves who were kidnapped and stolen. There is however shame in the purchase and abuse of a fellow man. We cannot change the past but we can take what is available to us today and make the most of it. Life is not fair, but lets not forget, the first abolitionists were white and that there were whites whom marched with Dr. King, and there were black slave traders and black slave owners. Recognize a man for what he is, good or evil, acknowledge a man for his deeds and actions, not for his race, nationality or such and let us do all we can to ensure that the past shall never be repeated. God Bless.
I have read the book “Slavery by Another Name” and just finished, along with that “The Imperial Cruise” by James Bradley. The two books together left me numb at first and then enraged that I was well indoctrinated growing up as a white man in this country, always believing in our inate “goodness”, and “purity” of purpose; that we were always the “good Guys”. I begin to believe that the Nazis probably took pointers from us to refine their own approach as to race (the book “War Against the Weak” seems to make that point very well), and that we must reeducate ourselves. Educators and political leadership will not do the job.
When I read your book a light bulb clicked. I got up and went thru the papers I have been getting
from colleges all over the south about my fathers family-The Whitfields. In it was a convict list dated 1879. IT now made sense!!!The Whitfields owned plantations from NC to Texas and STILL own banks, railroads and MINES. My fathers DNA and oral history says he is from one of the Slavemasters. The Whitfields have Plantation Museums in Marengo County, ALA. They are Gaineswood and the Whitfield Forscue House. I have wanted to go to Alabama and research some more, visit the museums. But my hubby who is from the Miss. Delta says no I can’t. Whenever I have called to research I get lots of help until they figure out I’m black. He believes that they will not be willing to help me and might harm me if I dig too far.The Whitfields held over 4000 slaves while becoming Judges, Senators, Doctors, etc. there are 30,000 people now still carrying the name. While researching I have cried and laughed, I had to come to grips with the history of this country , which most people do not know or don’t care to know.
Thanks for writing this book, it was a courageous! I also understand that sometimes it does take a white person to get this info. County Clerks have growled at me, refused to help, especially when it is one their beloveds, as the Whitfields are to the soouth. Look forward to your next book! Thanks!
Dear Mr. Blackmon:
I bought and read your book in Spring of 2008 and have been digesting its terrible contents ever since. It’s a marvelous combination of journalistic research, writing skill, barely concealed contempt for the perpetrators, and compassion. You have produced something for the ages. I simply wanted to say how proud I was that a fellow white man brought work this forward. After all of the incalculable damage we have done, this is more than a tidbit proffered to African- Americans in the manner of reparations.
People always look at me with astonoshment when I speak to them about this book. Unfortunately, the subject matter seems to be largely undiscovered by the masses. I hope this will change as time goes on.
Thank you for this terrible treasure. I’m so proud of you and have gained even more respect and admiration for the people who continue to thrive today despite their brutal history.
Thank you and I’m SORRY! I did not know how bad and how long and for the life of me can not imagine trying to survive if it was me. I want to tell people I am sorry for all of it. The institionalization of it; the crimes against humanity but more importantly the crimes against each individual, the total disregard for life and for failing to look after our children. I never had a keen interest in history and grew up without any means so I wondered if people could have had it that much worse than what we did since it seemed so many had it so much better. I grew up in an area which was not rife with racial tensions mostly because ours was an insular neighborhood environment and we have religion in our family. Before this book, I had believed slavery ended 150 years ago and did not understand why the racial issue was such a hot topic. I first read “Up from Slavery” and was moved by Mr. Washington’s selfless determination. Always having been intrigued about the polarization around the “N” word, I recently read “Nigger:The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word” by Dr. Randall Kennedy. After all, what’s in a word? Isn’t it just a word but why can some use it and others can’t or shouldn’t? I have a hard time with hypocrisies and was intrigued to follow the flow of that book. Then an article about this book in the WSJ caught my attention, so I chose if for a vacation in MD. Not exactly light summer reading and yet I struggled to both open it and put it down. I wept as I looked away from the book and towards my own children and tried to imagine some of the unimaginable events which you documented. We visited the Harriet Tubman Museum while on vacation and we tried to begin teaching our children about this horrible past, since I now know I did not learn enough about this in school, which is very frustrating to me.
America the great, and I believe it is, but what a tarnished past. So I am thankful this book was written to keep confronting it. I have a sense that I should be saying I am sorry to every African-American I know and meet even though I am from poor white immigrant families from the North. I want to know, would that help? For what it is worth, I thought the author was in fact black (if not the subject maybe it was the last name) but never cared to look until so many pages into the book. Merely from the title alone of Dr. Kennedy’s book I thought for certain that was a book which had to be written by a black person, and for obvious reasons, which is another recognition that we may still be another hundred years away from moving past the race issue we have here but with books like this I think you help to ensure we stay on track and hopefully speed the process up. Knowledge, truth and love have no color but I wonder if fortitude and perseverance aren’t rightfully of a darker hue. For the record I am a Republican and capitalist and would not think Mr. Blackmon is a bleeding heart liberal for this book since the truth is non-political even though all politicians spend so much time and energy trying to bend it and shape it to their liking. Together I hope we can help overcome this horrible past and make the USA a much better place in less than another 100 yrs time.
Mr. Blackmon,
I don’t know if you’ll remember me, but I met you at the Atlanta Journal and Constitution as part of a group of readers reviewing “Slavery by Another Name.” My great-grandfather was John S. Williams, one of the more…memorable…people you wrote about. I enjoyed meeting you very much; you were gracious and sensitive.
Congratulations on your Pulitzer Prize! Well deserved!
My seventeen-year-old niece, Kate Willis, is writing her senior international baccalaureate paper on peonage in Georgia, focusing (pretty bravely, you’d have to admit) on her great-great-grandfather’s times. She is particularly interested in trying to understand how stories like his could be forgotten, how society could have just absorbed such atrocities, changing only slowly. Your book has initiated many family discussions, and Kate is trying to capture our collective memory.
Would you be willing to be interviewed by Kate? She’s a sharp student, serious and committed to doing a good job. I would be happy to bring her to your Atlanta office, or wherever you suggest, if you could spare an hour. (She has an early November deadline.)
Please let me know if you could be available some time in the next month or so. Thank you so much and, again, congratulations!
Susan Burnore [email protected]
Thank you for writing this book, Mr. Blackmon. It is incredibly educational and your style is very readable.
I am curious, however, why did you and/or the publisher choose such a non-descript cover? It didn’t discourage me from purchasing it, but I am wondering if it might appeal to more people with something more eye-catching — not that the term “slavery” isn’t dramatic enough! I apologize if you’ve already addressed this issue and I’m just not finding your response …
Also, I saw on the Wikipedia entry for the book that there’s a forthcoming documentary. Do you have any idea when it might be released? Will it be seen on PBS? HBO?
Thanks again & please keep up the good work,
Dustin Herron
Corvallis, OR
Mr. Blackman thank you for the many hours you spent in bringing this masterpiece to us. I did not learn of your book until May of 2009. I happened to be watching C-span late one night and saw your appearance at a University in Georgia. I purchased the book shortly afterward,
I feel so cheated by not having this true history taught to me in high school 35 years ago. I had to stop reading the book at certain sections because I was overcome with emotion because of the inhumane treatment I was reading about. I have finally finished reading the book. I continue to share what I have learned with my family and others.
When visiting my mother recently, I shared some of the facts in the book with her. She showed me a journal that her grandfather kept during 1934-1939. He was a sharecropper in SC. He noted the different farms he and his family worked. He also kept a list of suplies purchased from the land owner. He noted how many hours were spent each day plowing, planting cotton, corn, peas or tobacco. He even mentions the little money he had left after settling the account with the land owner.
The journal is 75 years old. I am copying his writings in a word document file so it can be shared with his great-grandchildren and great- great grandchildren.
Your book has inspired me to undertake this important task.
Thank you again for you book!
Irish Hayes
Hello,
Thank you so much for writing and sharing with me the story of your great grandfather. It’s hugely gratifying for me that the book has helped many families to better understand their own pasts and the difficult lives experienced by forebears. I continue to research the stories of African-American families that lived through difficult times such as your great grandfathers.
Best regards,
Doug Blackmon
By chance I happened upon the author at a recent book review. His book is consistent with the attitude and behavior I have suffered from southern whites all of my sixty-eight years. One memory etched in my mind was a car trip the family took when I was about eight from Texas to Tennessee. We came upon this vast cotton farm in rural Arkansas. There were cotton pickers as far as the eye could see. Looking back on that scene and having the benefit of Mr. Blackmon’s revolutionary book, I can’t help but feel that those folks were subject to some form of indentured control. It could have been the old company store crime. That of eternal indebtness. But, that is for another book. Only a white southerner could have written this book. Maybe, there is a god.
This is such an important book. Until I read Slavery by Another Name I did not know there was a mirror world of recent slavery even more completely swept under the carpet than the original version. I finished the book last night and my head is still spinning not only with the magnitude of atrocity, terrorism and social outrage committed against millions of innocent people for such a long time, but with the light it sheds on so much we see today.
I’m unnerved by the cautionary implications of how the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling managed to subvert our whole nation’s morality and do so much damage. Even more distressing is the reality that those who knew about neo-slavery, understood how wrong it was and tried whatever they could to stop it were unable to make any difference at all.
Thank you Mr. Blackmon for documenting this truth and providing it to us all, and thank you also for the humanity that comes through your writing. Believe me, it was a necessary balm for getting through such a stomach-turning onslaught of recorded horrors. The Epilogue was charming and hopeful. I hope you have sent Mr. Louis Cottingham a copy of your Pulitzer winning book and that he will be happy with his family’s role in enlightening people like me who now admire his dignity and perseverance through such evil times.
Dear Doug,
Oz and I were delighted to hear about your Pulitzer Prize award. What an extraordinary and well deserved honor!
Do you remember that Oz and I met you when you joined Jon Abercrombie, Becky Butler and me at the American Assembly at Callaway Gardens? You were working on your book at that time and you discussed it with a small group of us at one of our planning meetings. It seems a little amazing to have been present somewhere near the birth of a star!
Thank you for your book, for your commitment to truth and for your excellent work. We are so happy for you.
Ann Starr and Oz Nelson
[My apologies for reposting my comments, but the editor in me saw a few errors that needed fixing.–GSN
As an African American, I can sympathize with Ms. Booker’s frustration about the race of the author who produced “Slavery by Another Name.” There is no doubt in my mind that this book would have not have received its present level of recognition had it been written by a black man. The deeply embedded racism that supported the exploitative practices your book have manifest themselves in the systematic devaluation, marginalization, and discredit of similar efforts by a black man in the past and continue to do so today. Preeminent scholars such as DuBois (“Souls of the Black Folk”) and renowned novelists such as John O. Killens (“Youngblood”) both have referenced neo-slavery in their writings that draw amazingly little notice by most Americans. So effectively has America’s educational system ignored these and other black authors that they become known only to some college students, history buffs, or independent-thinking intellects rather than to the millions who could benefit educationally, socially, and psychologically from a national storytelling more transparent than the a myth-ridden history they have been fed.
Even so, sharing Ms. Booker’s frustrations does not diminish my admiration for the author’s dogged pursuit of truth regarding this most sordid and thinly reported chapter of American history. Nor does it blind me to the realization that your race likely provided certain distinct advantages, in terms of access to information, availability of respected platforms, and presumed credibility, that a black author may have found difficult to match. It’s not unrealistic to assume that your reception in county courthouses, local libraries, and other repositories would have been much chillier and problematic had you been a black man. Although the thoroughness and readability of your book testifies to your ability to research, analyze, and write a compelling story, your race as much as your ability likely had much to do with your having the prestigious Wall Street Journal as a writing platform. And I say this already presuming that you either have been castigated as a “bleeding heart liberal” or soon will be as a result of this fine work.
In the end, what impressed me is the forthright and honest manner in which you leveraged these advantages to write a book about one of the ugliest chapters in American history. I believe that the story you tell in “Slavery by Another Name” may shed light on many still troubling issues, such as racial profiling, black prison populations; African American self-respect; missing males in the African American family; prisons as an economic resource; the depressed state of southern education, health, and welfare; and the South’s comparative lack of economic progress. In the final analysis, the fact that anyone—no matter the race—has written a book with so many implications means more to me than the author’s race. The irony is that the knowledge you so thoughtfully provided in “Slavery” actually may speed the very day when people like Ms. Booker and I can focus on the content of the book instead of the race of the author who wrote it.
Dear Mr. Blackmon,
While I anticipate reading your book, I have to admit that I am quite upset that you are not a Black man presenting this information. After years of African-American history being excluding and watered down to the masses of a majority audience, it takes a White man to present this information and to have this vital part of history finally revealed and accepted by the masses. With that being said, I would hope you could somewhat understand my frustration as a young African-American woman. Though, I do wonder had you been a black man would your book have gotten its current massive recognition.
However, I am grateful that you step out of your comfort zone and explored and presented an mostly ignored era of African-American history. I only hope that a portion of your financial success from this topic would be used to help further educate others about African-American history and help others (mainly minorities) in their pursuit for an education and a way have to progress of these histories that STILL effect their families and communities.
Thanks for your email Ms. Booker. I appreciate your concern, and many readers have shared some version of it. I have wrestled with these questions personally as well. But in the end, I believe this isn’t an African-American story, or a white story, or something similar. Instead, this is a sad American story, about terribly things done by Americans to Americans. It is the history of all of us, and I believe it’s essential that we confront it honestly. I hope you’ll write or post again after reading the book. Best, db
Thank you for writing this book. I have to place this with Dee Brown’s book, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” Telling the truth changes people. I will never be the same. Thank you for speaking the truth. The story of black people in this country hurts my heart. What can I do to make amends?
My heart wrenched as I read the narrative and I recalled photographs I had recently seen of lynchings and the “Picnic” photographs of white southerners who photographed and created postcards of blacks who they had lynched. The sad news is that there is no act of discrimination, criminality or down right oppression (political/economic or social) of one people by another that can occur unless there is some piece of legislature that protects those who commit it.
Here is where the real emancipation needs to take place; as the protection of any and all wrongdoing,in my opinion, is as a result of man being enslaved by greed; and that is where the denigration and exploitation breeds.
I am in the end grateful that, Janet who is a friend of mine and a journalist here in Jamaica directed me to read this book.
Doug,
Keep educating and raising awareness on the subject of 20th Century Slavery.
Thank you
Doug, I just finished your remarkable and courageous book a few minutes ago. I am profoundly moved by the mystery that you have unraveled. It is always shocking to have firmly held beliefs completely debunked. I am ashamed that my Southern ancestors could have participated in the “Neo-Slavery.” Now I have a little better understanding of why it is so important to all of us, but especially African-Americans, that we understand what really occurred after the Civil War and the long term implications. Clearly, the state and local governments that participated in both the pre- and post-Civil War versions of slavery really need to acknowledge these offenses and apologize for it. I believe the content of your book could be even more impactful in the form of a movie/documentary to ensure that enough folks actually consume this information. Would hope that your book would become required reading in high school to provide a broader perspective on a troubling, but true, period in America. I so wish that my paternal grandfather were still alive (he would be going on 105, but died in 1999) to ask him about what he knew about these practices. He spent most of his life in LaGrange, GA near the Alabama border. He was a police officer for the City between the mid-1930’s and 1960. I suspect he would be able to further corroborate similar episodes. Thank you for the “wake-up” call of your book. My perspective has changed for the better, although my heart is heavy.
By chance I happened upon the author at a recent book review. His book is consistent with the attitude and behavior I have suffered from southern whites all of my sixty-eight years. One memory etched in my mind was a car trip the family took when I was about eight from Texas to Tennessee. We came upon this vast cotton farm in rural Arkansas. There were cotton pickers as far as the eye could see. Looking back on that scene and having the benefit of Mr. Blackmon’s revolutionary book, I can’t help but feel that those folks were subject to some form of indentured control. It could have been the old company store crime. That of eternal indebtness. But, that is for another book. Only a white southerner could have written this book. Maybe, there is a god.
Having just listened to your interview with Bill Moyers; I congratulate you for years of effort to produce this literary expose. As I listened to the conversation and then read the various blog posts I could not stop thinking of the contemporary parallels. Is there a “new” neo-slavery movement involving the present day prison-industrial complex? As with the period you document, the ratio of black to white persons incarcerated in America the past 40 years remains dominantly black. With the changes in manufacturing, mining etc. since 1960, has the economic value of incarceration changed? Privatized prisons and immigration prisons are a growth industry in America’s otherwise moribund economy. With the conclusion of this tome, is it time to document and prepare the sequel…Slavery by another name Continued (or Part 2). If you are interested in such a story, I would be interested in working with you. Bravo.
I have seen and/or heard you about 4 times this year about this very important book. All I can say is that you’ve done a great service for this country. I do hope that folks in this great country of ours read the book and understand the ugly truth, but most importantly, learn from it. Well let me bounce but once again great job, will be buying the book shortly.
I’m about to order the book. Watching you describe the things you uncovered was somewhat painful. It is true that I did not actually live the things you wrote about but growing up in North Carolina in the 50’s and 60’s, I know in my heart that what you described actually happened more often than we want to believe. Black men and women were hardly ever addressed with Mr. or Mrs. Females were “gal” and men were “boy”, no matter what their age. I left Fayetteville, NC after the 9th grade because I knew my New York state of mind (I was born in Harlem, New York) would get me hanged.Thank you for getting this book out. Please send a copy to Senator Obama. I have already sent your website link to everyone on my email list.
Uncle Dewitt, my maternal grandmother’s baby boy, left me his house paid in full after his death. I am not his only relative, neither I am his favorite but I am in his eyes the only relative that would protect his house from being taken by the State. In reading the first three chapters, I remembered something my uncle’s often said, “It is a blessing to be a colored man above the age of 30 in this country.” Since my entire family is linked to the Georgia farms, it is difficult for me to imagine how they managed to survive past age 30. No one ever knew what became of my grandparents oldest son, named William Freeman, after his father. Rumor had it that he went away to California, but in truth maybe he fell victim to a prison work camp, died and was buried in a mass grave. I also remember by father saying that, “Just because I play a fool does not mean I am a fool.” Black men often pretended insanity, because Southern whites did not exactly understand how to control “crazy niggers”. Being too deaf and too dumb to follow orders, was a good ploy in use by many men and women to keep out of harms way in the segregated and slave loving Southern States. Probably every road we walk in Atlanta is paved with the blood and souls of hundreds of black slaves. No wonder the wind seldom blows cool fresh air into this city, there are too many ghosts walking the streets.
Doug, I just finished watching your interview with Bill Moyer about your book. I must say as a 41 y.o. African American woman born and raised in the north I was shaken. Both my parents who were born and raised in the south are in their seventies. Often they would tell me stories that were hard to believe, downright unimaginable. I never discounted any of their stories. However, after viewing those graphic pictures and listening to your interview it just reinforced everything I had been told. I’d like to thank you for giving a voice to these men and their families. I commend you for bringing this subject matter to the conscious of America. I’m looking forward to reading your the reading about this story in it’s entirety.
I am the Executive Producer of a documentary entitled… The Untold Story ” Slavery in the 20th Century. The documentary featuring research conducted by Antoinette Harrell, has exposed hundreds of thousands of documents located in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. She revealed in this documentary letters written to five U.S. Presidents, FBI reports, NAACP reports, newspaper articles. This documentary also feature former slave Mae Louise Miller who didn’t get her freedom until 1962. I am asking you to please contact me at 504.858.4658. or by email. Antoinette Harrell The Untold Story ” Slavery in the 20th Century”
I have just finished your book and must say thank you for writing it. I have never understood why white privilege – and many white’s indignation and denial of their obvious feelings of entitlement – is still so dominant in our country. Your work goes a long way towards an explanantion. It seems to me little has changed; there are just different petty laws that we lock people up for. We live in a world that ignores history, and puts little value on the dignity of human life. Wealth, power and privilege are still the major determinants of our society. The facts of the Age of Neoslavery do not surprise me. It is almost as if I knew this had happened. Everyone in this country should have to digest the facts within and then be required to discuss it.
Let the reparations begin with the citizens of these states and the shareholders of these corporations…
Doug, I just finished watching your interview on “Democracy Now!” From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. You are a good man. To me, this book and the painstaking research behind it, was a soul mission, as well as an historical mission. I agree with an earlier encouragement to do follow-up books–such as, for example, how the prison-industrial complex preys upon black folks. For that, I trust you’ll find the focus that makes the most sense to you. I second the idea of making this book into a documentary—to reach the most people possible. Your plate is likely full, but hopefully you could find a team that would do most of the work. The public needs to see this. Your recurring question, regarding the proper response of banks and gov’t agencies which “learn” they are enabling human rights violations, is a key question. It reaches into the deepest parts of this nation, both its economy and its governance. Because it is rarely responded to, we have greed pressing down from every corner, and a systematic undermining of the Constitution. (People are shockingly unaware, too, of what drives their misery.) Power brokers like J.P. Morgan and others do not bother with the idea that untold wealth can be secured even when treating people justly. Instead, they stick with what they know– that quick and dirty methods yield immediate results. In the long run, of course, inhuman practices carry the seeds of their own destruction. As a nation, we’re still discovering how to realize our ideals. Books like yours remind us of the shadow between our principles and our behaviors, and hence offer motivation to keep trying. Truth is a power in its own right–transforming those who receive it. Thank you for writing truth.
Where can I find this book. I am in Dallas, and Borders and B&N do not have it. Borders told me they could order it, but I would not receive it until August. I WANT IT NOW 🙂 Thanks, Mike
This book for some unknown reason grinds on me every single day. I am, little by little, discovering the missing pieces to my family’s story and their motives behind certain required mannerisms. Things like, “Never talk loud or laugh in public.” “Never leave a store without a purchase receipt and a shopping bag.” “Never leave home without enough money in your shoe to come back.” My Aunt Ruth, who worked for over 45 years as a housemaid for two white famiilies, believed that “It was impossible for white people to go to heaven, because of the way they treated colored people.” The United States’ practice of ethnic genocide has created a deep and horrible wound, but unfortunately instead of using the appropriate measures to begin the healing process, we say, “It’s not that bad.”
Mr Blackmon, I was really happy to learn of your recently published book, Slavery By Another Name. It is a great work that seems to fall right in line with the work of genealogist researcher, Antoinette Harrell. In 2003, Harrell’s extensive research on peonage suggested that slavery was still in existence in the 20th century (the 1960s to be exact). She followed up this research by going to Washington D.C., where she was able to locate information that verified her findings. I was made aware of her research on peonage in 2003, when she exposed the bondage of a woman named Ms. Mae Miller and her family (all of whom lived in bondage until the early 1960’s-view in People Magazine. The Last Slaves of Mississippi, March 26,2007). Harrell exposed the horrific conditions in which Miller and her family lived, when she returned to Mississippi with Miller to view the area where they were in-slaved. While on this overgrown plot of land, Miller showed Harrell and many of us the pond that they used daily. Though the was green,it was used to drink from, to wash clothing, and to bath in. The livestock also drank from and bathed in the same water. Learning that slavery was still in existence during my lifetime has had a tremendous affect on my perception of slavery and its existence. Through genealogy researchers like Antoinette Harrell and yourself, I have been able to obtain a clearer understanding of peonage in the United States and a better understanding of my family’s ancestral background.
I cannot be the only reader disturbed by the haunting photo in your book of the young “convict” chained sideways to a pickaxe set blade-side down in the dusty yard of a bleak 1930’s Georgia prison camp. I’m 59 years old and this is the first time I’ve seen someone tied to a pickaxe –and this photo disturbs me almost as much as those of lynchings. I was struck by how tightly he must have been chained to the farm instrument to have achieve such a balanced positioning. His facial expression seemed blank, so devoid of expression that I cannot tell whether he is being stoic, has passed out, or has died. His head is located at nine o’clock and seems about ready to drop his right cheek seems onto the end of the pickaxe. Given your descriptions of the unrelenting physical punishment so steadily dispensed in such camps as this, I assumed that this positioning was not coincidental but rather was designed to achieve some desired punitive effect. Was the object of this diabolical punishment to cause the victim’s cheek to embed itself forced by fatigue and force of gravity on the point of the pickaxe? Another photo on your website shows this kid’s shirt carefully pulled away from his body to buffer his cheek from the axe point. Questions flood my mind: What was his name? How old was he? How long had he been in the camp? Why was he punished in this fashion? How long was he shackled to the pickaxe? Is there an identifying term for this particular punishment? What was his condition when he was released? Does it have any special effects? Was he ever released from the camp? Whatever happened to him?
Outstanding Expose! Who or what group can I connect with, that is interested in discussing and counteracting a particularly virulent form this insidious economic exploitation of especially the African American Man has taken since WWII?
SBAN should be read as a crystal ball revealing the continuing twin practices of creating cheap and forced labor traps using the law. This practice greatest impact is still found today Post WWII, mostly among the minority populations of not only the US but the world. SABN is the canary used to determine how awake the current targeted populations are to the present form this exploitation has taken Post WWII. SBAN is a potential distracter using an historical expose to divert mental energy and resources from the current fight. NeoSlavery requires Post WWII NeoAbolition, let’s redouble our genealogy efforts to demonstrate how individuals and groups state in the economic present are connected to those past exploited. Let’s deny the effort to keep those past exploited nameless and unconnected to their offspring of the present. SBAN also reveals that Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome does not occur in a historical vacuum but as a result of Neoslavery practices and with genealogy the argument for reparations becomes more powerful plus directly tied to specific descendants.
I’d like to share this article in Mother Jones magazine, titled “Probation Profiteers.” This is happening in Georgia and several other states now, not in the dim and distant past. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/slammedprobation-for-profit.html
My husband and I heard you on a KGO radio program last week. We immediately purchased your book. I am of European descent and my husbad is African American. I recently took on the project of studying both of our genealogical backgrounds. In my case, I have been able to find ancestors as far back as the 1200’s in one line and the ‘shortest’ line I have goes back to the 1600’s. In my husband’s case, I cannot find anything for one line prior to 1886(they left Mississippi in the early 1900s and moved to Alabama)and I was able to find a paternal great grandfather from Kentucky born in 1835. I found him because he was in the civil war so there were some records on him due to his service. To me this speaks volumes. Even when interviewing my husband’s grandparents and aunts who are still alive, very little is known about anyone in the family prior to the turn of the last century. There simply were very few records, no property owned, until as you point out in your book the middle of last century. This type of glaring gap between the realities of African-American families and the rest of Americans needs to be appreciated by our entire society before we can begin to heal. Thank you for writting this book; as terribly painful and horrifying as our American history is, we need to face it and understand it.
I am amazed and both proud of the responses and success of your book. I am the grand-daughter of late Mr. John Henry Sylvester mentioned in your book that played a great part in the movement for fair treatment and rights of African Americans in the South. My family still reside on the very land (Strike City) where history was made. I recently lost my grandfather August 15, 2008. I have since been compelled to purchase more copies of your book to distribute not only within my family but to those who are clueless to the struggles and unfair treatment that many African Americans indured in the South long after “slavery” was said to have been abolished. I thank you for exposing some of the hardships and unspoken of truths to our country. As children we were told many stories and a very painful history of how our family and many other African Americans “Came Over”. These words symbolized breakthrough & victory for African Americans during time of struggle. I cannot express how much more important this book is to me now that I no longer have my grandfather here to remind me of how far Our Country has come. My family thanks you.
Mr. Blackmon, I read your book a couple of weeks ago, and found it very difficult going, and very informative. I can easily imagine it having been much longer, as I am sure there were hundreds of other stories you could have told. I do agree with you, that this facet of post-bellum history goes a long way toward explaining why African Americans did not take their rightful place in society at the conclusion of the Civil War. There has been a good amount of documentation of farm camps and “Jim Crow” laws, but what your book adds to the record is a picture of exactly how systematic the re-enslavement of blacks was. Reading your bibliography , I thought it would be wonderful if there were an “open source” collection of documents, articles, books and films relating to this issue that would be accessible to scholars and the general public. Is there any such thing? A museum, a website?
I’m watching C-SPAN2 and I’ve just finished wiping away tears I didn’t expect to shed. I cried when Douglas Blackmon told of the tearful reaction of Wachovia’s African American employees when their CEO told them of the bank’s involvement in neo-slavery. I’ve worked in banking and financial institutions my entire career. My mother was born and raised in Alabama in the 1920s. I’m an African-American and I’m from Chicago. These relationships bring the story a little closer to home for me. Thanks, Doug Blackmon, for bringing to light this horrific chapter in American history.
Hello Sir, Just like to ask you to give dates and locations of the photos on the site-slaves. Your CSPAN presentation was most interesting- will get the book. Thanks.
I just saw your book presentation on Cspan book tv, and I am truly amazed at how little is spoken about this history in our country. We must have works such as yours availiable in schools. Ten years ago, when I was forty I was looking at a history book of my home town and nearly cried when I saw a large group photo of Klu Klux Klan men. This was way up in the Northeast! I am white, heartbroken about our slow journey towards peace and justice, yet I believe in mercy and hopeful that more will be brought out into the light of day this history of our beloved country. Thank you.
Has anything changed…really? The first debate of the upcoming 2008 Presidentail Election is scheduled to take place in Mississippi. The first presidential election where to Democratic nominee is a black man. Why is that?
Mr. Blackmon: Have you ever read John Oliver Killens’ novel “Youngblood”? Part of its plot revolves around a Georgia “slave” plantation in the 1900s?
Love your book, Doug! I am so proud of you! I am currently teaching senior English and have plans to incorporate portions of the book into my lessons. I enjoy teaching diversity and tolerance issues. More importantly the students are open to discussing these issues as well. Good luck and look forward to seeing next time you are in town.
Mr. Blackmon, I just purchased and started to read the book this week. I have never heard the stories that so many have talked about hearing on this blog, but I do know that in trying to document people in my genealogy research (10,000 African Americans from SE Louisiana) many appear on one census and then disappear by the next census. You might say they relocated, and that is true for some, but just reading the first chapter makes me wonder. Thank your for wirting this, and my son’s will receive a copy for Christmas. Additionally, I plan to contact my youngest son’s Black History teacher to recommend this book for the class. Again, thank you.
Thanks Scott. There have been so many posts and emails like these from readers, white and black, who realize a personal connection to these events. I’m certain you’re correct that your grandfather, living in that time and in that place, would have known how this neo-slavery dominated the lives of African-Americans so starkly. He lived not far from the terrible Kinderlou plantation to the south and the nightmarish home county of John Pace to the west. It’s extraordinary to me that so many Americans today are able to learn about and consider the truth of what happened in that time without being threatened or terrified by the truth. Most of our parents, and certainly our grandparents and great grandparents, would have struggled mightily to acknowledge these truths. It says something good about where we are that this has changed so profoundly.