I saw Douglas Blackmon, Wall Street Journal reporter and author of "Slavery by Another Name", on the Tavis Smiley Show tonight.

I had never before heard about neo-slavery.

According to Blackmon, the South was culpable; the North was complicit.
Modern companies, including US Steel, profited.

The system didn't come to an end until the 1940s, "partly due to fears of enemy propaganda about American racial abuse at the beginning of World War II."

13th Amendment be damned, this sale of "convicts" to private enterprises to pay of "debts" was perfectly legal until 1951.

African Americans are still the mainstay of the slave class in America, as are the illegal immigrants.

According to History of Western Civilization 101,
"Freeing" the slaves in the south was offered as a tactical war maneuver and never a part of Lincoln's initial agenda.
The Confederacy was winning the war. Offering freedom to slaves was meant to disrupt the South by inciting rebellion amongst the slaves.
This tactic helped change the tide resulting in a Union victory.

KK, Right you are.

It is sometimes overlooked that the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in rebelling states to keep the loyalty of border slave states fighting with the Union (Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware).

Tabsey, Right you are.