How Did Frederick Douglass Kill Victims Of Poverty?

The freedman and abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” Although Frederick Douglass lived before the time Richard Wright lived, Wright’s autobiography Black Boy is still reminiscent of enforced poverty, ignorance, and oppression. Richard Wright lived in extreme poverty, faced ignorant people, and encountered black opposition everywhere he went. Also, the PBS documentary “Slavery By Another Name” is a prime example as to how white people were able to criminalize black people into enforced poverty and slavery.

Although this practice was outlawed, peonage was still prevalent in the South. Blacks were falsely accused and convicted of crimes that they could not pay the fines for. These people were bought from the court and sold to people for profit, where they would be worked like slaves. John Davis, one of the victims of peonage, was asked by Bob Franklin when he would pay him money. Davis did not owe any money. “John Davis was bought from the court by Bob Franklin and then resold for profit”(“Slavery By Another Name”) Davis was one of the many victims of peonage, confronted randomly by a white man and taken into slavery. This, along with corrupt Justices of the Peace, could declare someone guilty of a crime to put blacks into peonage. A random confrontation leading to the enslavement under a different name was one of the factors of “White Terror,” where blacks were at constant risk of being threatened, and hated the whites for

Although not taking advantage of the loophole in the 13th Amendment, it does take advantage of African-Americans’ less legal rights. Sharecropping, a way for people to use agriculture and others’ land to make money, was a way to earn money for whites, immigrants, and blacks. The owner of the land would get a percentage of what was made off the land by the sharecroppers. “50%, 70%, 90% interest rates were not uncommon all throughout the south in relation to sharecropping finance...that system is going to put African-Americans in a position where upward mobility is essentially impossible”(“Slavery By Another Name”) This form of enforced poverty contributes to why the blacks hated the white, belittling them and not letting them rise in socioeconomic rank through ridiculous interest rates. Another reason that the blacks disliked the whites in sharecropping is that due to the vulnerability of blacks in the government, “millions of black people in remote parts of the South could not leave the farms they were being held on...if they did they would be subject to arrest by the sheriff, and if they were arrested, they would be returned to the very same farms, oftentimes in chains, receiving nothing”(“Slavery By Another Name”). This could be attributed to slavery by another name again, as they are confined to their farms, receiving little compensation, and are rid of their autonomy. This perpetuation of slavery contributes to “White