This is the final article in this series (Oct 19-22, 2010). The connections have been drawn between the reality we face today in gulag America to its foundation in convict leasing and prison industrialization in the post-bellum period (1865-77). And is now meeting with a resurgence thru prison privateering…
Tennessee Coal Creek War
One of the central books in this discovery process is “Worse Than Slavery…” by David M. Oshinsky (1997). The South initiated the technique of criminalizing those they could, notably the former slaves in order to disenfranchise them from political power, dehumanize them in the popular culture, and to exploit their labor. Over 100 years of Jim Crow helped create this perversion even in the midst of the struggle for democracy. more…
