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Articles on 13th Amendment

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In this rare photograph taken in 2000, prisoners at the Ferguson Unit in Texas are seen working in the prison’s cotton fields. Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

The 13th Amendment’s fatal flaw created modern-day convict slavery

The 13th Amendment is given credit for freeing an estimated 4 million enslaved people during the Civil War era. It also enabled a prison system of free labor and involuntary servitude.
Abolitionist John Brown, left, and President Abraham Lincoln, right, were both moral crusaders. Hulton Archive/Getty Images & Stock Montage/Getty Images

John Brown was a violent crusader, but he blazed a moral path that the cautious Lincoln followed to end slavery

President Lincoln was a statesman. John Brown was a radical. That’s the traditional view of how each one fought slavery, but it fails to capture the full measure of their devotion.

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