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Thesis For The 13th Amendment

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The 13th amendment to the US constitution abolished slavery; once put in place in 1865, blacks were free people in the United States, unless they were criminals. The documentary 13th does an amazing job putting forth the correlation between mass incarceration and race. It explores the loophole within the 13th amendment which states that slavery shall not exist within the United States, unless of punishment for a crime. This allows for criminals to be “slaves” within the prison system. The documentary follows slavery and oppression of African-Americans from the time of working in the fields, to current times, where one in every 3 black men are expected to be incarcerated at some point in their lifetime. When the 4 million slaves of the United States were freed in 1865, a void was left within the US economy. This void and need for economic regeneration lead to the …show more content…

Once slavery ended, black incrimination started. Incarceration of people helped fill the void in the economy. Following the civil war African-Americans were arrested and imprisoned in masses; when imprisoned they were forced to work, as the south needed to improve their economy after the abolishment of slavery. Unfortunately, this effectively made them “slaves” once again. In this post civil war world, African-Americans were frequently arrested for very minor type crimes, or sometimes wrongfully arrested by corrupt officers and government officials who wanted to keep african-americans oppressed. Of course, this was not the goal of every single police officer, but it was a widespread issue. Starting in this era, and I would arguing continuing into today’s times, African-Americans were wrongly arrested, incarcerated, beaten, and

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Oppression In the documentary “13th” by director Ava DuVernay demonstrates how the African American community been repressed through the many years. It being named 13th after the 13th amendment which is that all Americans shall be granted freedom and this abolished slavery. The only loophole around this amendment is through imprisonment and that’s what unfortunately happens to the African American community. The documentary opens up by claiming that the United States are made up of 5% of the world population, but claiming 25% of the world prisonment.

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Ava DuVernay suggests Slavery’s NOT Dead in 13th The recently released Netflix original documentary 13th identifies the issue of race in America and how the government instills fear in the nation in order to provide justice for the people by enforcing a ‘War on Crime.’ This tactic was Nixon’s way of incarcerating blacks during his presidency. Many of the elections beginning with President Truman’s era were a long list of former Presidents that used crime as a platform. Whoever was ‘tougher’ on crime would win the election.

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737 Words | 3 Pages

The 13th Amendment, ratified about 157 years ago, states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” In the documentary 13th, the loophole to this American right is explored: although slavery may be illegal, discreetly targeting people of color to put them in prison is not. 13th is a powerful documentary that scrutinizes the unjust U.S. prison system, and explores the repercussions that the abolition of slavery had on people of color. I found that this documentary was engaging, yet brutally honest in the way it addresses historic discriminatory acts that have caused the incarceration rates in America to rise through the

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776 Words | 4 Pages

The film 13th is a documentary that explains how the prison systems are another form of slavery and is built to effect colored individuals and colored communities. The film identifies and explained a loop hole in the 13th amendment, which banned slavery. The loop in the amendment is that slavery and involuntary servitude is illegal unless a person is convicted of a crime. This clause in the amendment led to the first prison boom in America and mass incarceration. This film opened my eyes to underlying aspects of things that I have had previous knowledge about.

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1658 Words | 7 Pages

In the book, The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, readers are given a look at the long and extensive history of racism towards African-Americans. From there, the reader is shown how racism towards African-Americans has not gone away and is still very much common in modern society. Throughout the novel, Alexander argues and discusses how African-Americans are being discriminated against in the form of mass incarceration. “Mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and out of prison” (Alexander 14). The War On Drugs can largely be put to blame for the increase in incarcerations.

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In document 1, it expresses “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment of a crime wherof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This section of the 13th amendment alone provides us a coherent view of how the South was greatly flawed. Despite the Constitution stating “all men are created equal,” racial discrimination continued to take a part of society in this era and limited, sometimes even violated, the rights of these former slaves and African Americans. The 15th Amendment also sets forth, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Like Document 1, this segment of the Amendment supports how African Americans proceeded to be regarded and looked upon as indifferent to the whites, lessening their rights as citizens in the process.

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The “13th” is a documentary about the American system of incarceration and the economic forces behind racism in America especially in people of color. One of the claims that the author mentioned is that today incarceration is an extension of slavery. It is also mentioned that most of the time in society we are defined by race. In the documentary, we can see how African Americans are sentenced for many years since they are too poor to pay their fines or sometimes most of these people plead guilty to get out of jail fast. However, African Americans are separated from their families and also treated inhumanly in prisons just because they are of a particular race.

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The landowners took advantage of their tenants by overcharging for land and underpaying for the crops. The tenants began falling deeper into debt. They could not leave until they paid off their debt, which was nearly impossible. Although former slaves had been freed, they were still facing many struggles in free life. America’s plan for reconstruction had good intent, but did not give African Americans the equality they deserved.

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13th Documentary Analysis Ava DuVernay’s documentary mentions that the United States makes up five percent of the world’s population yet is home to twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners. One out of four prisoners in the world are locked up in the U.S. The United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The thirteenth amendment of the constitution makes it unconstitutional for someone to be held as a slave.

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Angela Davis Once said “Well for one, The 13th Amendment to the constitution of the U.S. which abolished slavery, did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.” Although the amendment was desperately needed it made more problems for the U.S.The thirteenth amendment was about abolishing slavery. Many people had different opinions about this amendment. The amendment affected our nation dramatically. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution says that, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

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The thirteenth amendment stated that all former slaves were granted freedom. The reconstruction period, “did create the essential constitutional foundation for further advances in the quest for equality”. It laid the building blocks for the future building for civil rights not just for blacks but women and other minorities. Former slaves, “ found comfort in their family and in the churches they established”. Blacks took community in each other and bonded over the mutual idea of freedom .

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629 Words | 3 Pages

This was my third time watching the 13th Documentary, I have watched it for my Justice Theory class, Protest Justice Law and Media class, and now Immigration Education and the Family. However, with that being said, this is still an excellent documentary and each time I watch it I learn something new and different aspects pop out to me based on what particular class I have watched it for. When it comes to this class, I focused on the nuances and who was being targeted. To begin, the documentary is in reference to the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and how it had the ability to end slavery for African Americans, however, this end of slavery led to a mass incarceration of individuals, predominantly people who are African American.

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Mass incarceration is the way that the United States has locked up millions of people over the last forty years using unnecessary and disproportionate policies. Contrary to popular belief, this is racially fueled as most of these policies saw to it that blacks and latinos be locked up for longer than their white peers and for smaller crimes. These racist roots within the system can be traced back to when the first slave ship arrived in the US. But our first major prison boom was seen after the American Civil war. I know that the Civil War was far more than forty years ago.

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643 Words | 3 Pages

Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force.

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193 Words | 1 Pages

African Americans have been placed on a path that their fates have been set throughout history. The criminal justice system has also taken it upon itself to make sure that they do not move away from this path and continue to go forward with it. So many parts of the system have played its role and it continues to play it by keeping African incarcerated. Not only do they target African Americans, but they target those who have a disadvantage when fighting against the system. The system has its history with African Americans so one can figure that this would continue to lead on in the future.

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