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My read is that they were asking the reader to imagine they (the reader) are a prisoner, and thus a slave according to the thirteenth amendment. Even under your
by nickff 2y ago
My read is that they were asking the reader to imagine they (the reader) are a prisoner, and thus a slave according to the thirteenth amendment. Even under your reading, that comment is a pure hypothetical, because federal prisoners are not slaves. I happen to believe that the federal government has enslaved people in a different context, very recently, conscripts.
- jmholla 2y agoThe very amendment you've been quoting explicitly calls it slavery. What would this system look like if slavery wasn't excused for incarceration?
- SoftTalker 2y agoThey call it "involuntary servitude." I read it as: 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 ...
- jmholla 2y agoIt's a distinction without a difference. Even the Wikipedia article explicitly says that involuntary servitude and involuntary slavery are used interchangeably. [0] I feel you're getting caught up in word choice instead of arguing the actual implementation and interpretation of the law. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_servitude https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_servitude