Louisiana’s Long History Of People As Property

Louisiana votes “No” on removing constitutional language allowing forced labor as punishment. How long will slavery plague the state?

I first visited Louisiana’s State Penitentiary, known as Angola, on a church youth field trip for the prison rodeo. I remember being excited because it was the first rodeo I’d ever been to.

We walked together in a group under the Louisiana sun, taking in countless fair food booths, activities, and merchandise. There were people everywhere, excited children and older folks enjoying the day.

Eventually, we made it to the inmates who sat near their wares displaying original art, jewelry, and other crafts. They spoke to us about their creations, their inspirations, and positive messages. I felt a kind of kinship with them because even as a young girl, I recognized that the world viewed us differently because we were Black.

Although I couldn’t wholly understand the implication of mass incarceration, I could tell a lot of the inmates looked like me.

Looking back on this memory as an informed adult, it breaks my heart. Having grown up in Louisiana, I’ve witnessed the steady disenfranchisement of the Black community and the mass incarceration — and constitutionally-sanctioned slavery — that still endures.

THE ENDURING DANGER OF EXCEPTION CLAUSES

This exploitation of incarcerated workers stems from the ‘exception clause’ of the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits slavery except for people who have been convicted of crimes. 20 states — as well as the United States Constitution — possess exception clauses that still enable the exclusion of incarcerated people from workplace safety protection laws.

Louisiana’s exception clause was added to the state’s constitution in 1865, allowing for the continuation of slavery through a loophole: punishment for convicted crimes. Black codes, the precursor to Jim Crow laws, imprisoned Black people for minor offenses like vagrancy while inventing and enforcing new crimes such as loitering.

Louisiana voters had the opportunity to vote on Amendment 7 during this year’s midterms — a proposal aiming to remove language from Louisiana’s constitution that allows forced labor as an accompanying punishment for crime. (It was actually one of 5 amendments dealing with slavery bans.)

We’ll talk about the results in a minute.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LOUISIANA AND PEOPLE AS PROPERTY

Louisiana’s history, while rich with culture, remains mired by the stain of chattel slavery, which has slowly and steadily evolved into the prison labor system we see today. Prior to the abolition of slavery in the wake of the Civil War, there was no meaningful prison system; criminals were instead punished through torture — referred to as corporal or capital punishment.

In 1821, American politician and lawyer Edward Livingston was asked to write the state’s Jurisprudence or legal code; he crafted the System of Penal Law, still celebrated as a deft approach to criminal reform, but it was never adopted by the Louisiana legislature.

Louisiana opted instead to invest in prisons, “built in the South as part of the backlash to black Reconstruction and as a mechanism to re-enslave black workers,” writes Jaron Browne for RP&E Journal.

“In the late 19th-century South, an extensive prison system was developed in the interest of maintaining the racial and economic relationship of slavery.

Louisiana’s famous Angola Prison illustrates this history best.”

THE CURRENT PRISON LABOR SYSTEM IN LOUISIANA

According to a recent report from the ACLU — Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Worker — prisoners of the Louisiana State Penitentiary—are paid between .2 to .4 cents an hour for work spanning the cultivation of crops to garment production work.

Angola is the nation’s largest maximum-security prison occupying 18,000 acres of land that were formally slave plantations. And every prisoner in Angola — 74% of whom are Black (the most incarcerated race across the state) — begins work in the fields. Formerly incarcerated workers say field laborers have minimal access to water and rest, no restroom facilities, and are patrolled by armed correctional officers on horseback.

Workers also report collapse from exhaustion or dehydration while working in the fields on hot days. Laborers have also been placed in solitary confinement if they are unwilling or unable to perform work in the fields, or if they don’t work fast enough.

“This agricultural work has direct roots in the Black chattel slavery of the South,” writes the ACLU.

AMENDMENT 7: INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE ON THE BALLOT

Formed in 2020, Decarcerate Louisiana is a local organization fighting slavery, forced labor, and involuntary servitude in the Louisiana prison system. Their work is no small feat and has been evident during this election cycle.

“For the last 157 years the original language has legally kept our people in bondage,” writes Laramie Griffin, Community Director of Decarcerate Louisiana. “For the first time in history the people will decide if slavery should be a part of Louisiana’s future.”

Decarcerate Louisiana President Maria Harmon echoes Griffin’s confidence that removing the “exception” from Louisana’s constitution is vital to eliminating the exploitation that has endured for centuries and will force a much-needed dialogue around the legality of forced labor.

“Right now, if you have incarcerated people that choose to sue the Department of Corrections or sue the state, because of involuntary servitude or forced labor or inhumane actions or them suing to be paid a full minimum wage for their labor, that case is not going to hold up because the law does not apply to them,” said Harmon.

“They are essentially property of the state. So if you vote yes on 7, what you’re doing is, you’re helping to give a pathway for people who are incarcerated to actually file a lawsuit against involuntary servitude and forced labor.”

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE ELECTION RESULTS

When the smoke cleared Tuesday night, the election results for Amendment 7 came in at a resounding 60.9% No, surfacing continued questions around the flurry of confusion and fear that began to plague voter confidence in the proposal language:

“Do you support an amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude except as it applies to the otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice?”

Notice that lingering “except.”

“The broadness of that phrasing led State Representative Edmond Jordan, who had initially sponsored the bill, to fear that it could actually create more exceptions to the protection from slavery,” notes the NYTimes.

Jordan began urging voters to vote “No,” towards the end of October, insisting the language could be revised and clarified. He worried “the way it was drafted could lead to multiple different conclusions or opinions,” he told KSLA12, potentially broadening the scope of slavery and indentured servitude.

He believes lawmakers — and voters — should revisit this issue in 2023 and bring it back with language that leaves no room for interpretation or perpetuation of forced labor.

Legal fellow Hilary Chan says that even if Amendment 7 had passed, there would have been little to no immediate effect, but over time prisoners could have slowly filed lawsuits illustrating that the conditions they’re working in amount to slavery and are unconstitutional. However, she explained, gaining victories also means the courts have to be favorable to that shared vision of justice, which is unlikely in places like Louisana.

It’s difficult to know whether enduring racism has underpinned Louisana’s widespread rejection of this measure, or if Jordan’s insistence on getting the language right compelled voters to vote “No.”

Laramie Griffin reminds us that the road to change is not linear and so, “the journey to freedom continues.”

LEARN MORE /// WATCH THE “SLAVE STATE” DOCUMENTARY