The Process and System by which Slavery Increased

Hussien Nasser
AFAM 2100
Professor Young
6 February 2017

The process and system by which slavery increased was unique and well created by whites.  The process was controlled primarily by the government and corporations, creating a system that keeps blacks in slavery legally.   The process was referred to as “convict leasing”.  Slaves would be charged with trumped up charges such as vagrancy or cussing in front of a white person; the most minuet action would put any black person in jail. After being arrested and fined, these slaves were not financially met to pay these fines therefore they were given a plea bargain. These slaves would feel afraid and intimidated so they would confess to erroneous charges that they did not commit resulting in them going to jail. As mentioned earlier, convict leasing was primarily controlled by corporations and the government. Both the government and corporations worked together to provide a system for corporations to either buy or lease prisoners. Wares’ Shelby Iron Works was an industrial company in Alabama that contracted with the Confederate government to produce iron for war. “Slaves were the salvation of the operation to continue supplying thousands of tons of iron”. Shelby Iron Works, also the largest owner of slaves in Alabama, acquired prisoners who were slaves from the government making it beneficial for the white man. African Americans skills and abilities are being used while the white man is growing and making his life better. As the white man was getting richer, the black man was getting poorer. This was the mentality during the Industrial Slave Period. Before the system and process of convict leasing was implemented, Richard Mather states that “African slavery is normal, natural, and holy”. This statement goes to show that African Americans are naturally supposed to be in a system that suppressed and oppressed them from growing and living a life similar to that of the whites.