• usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
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      20 days ago

      Because the 13th amendment has an explicit exception for prison slave labor baked into it. It’s not an accidental addition, and it wasn’t unnoticed either (it was very quickly used especially in the South after the 13th amendment was ratified)

      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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

      Some states have recently change their state constitutions to prohibit that within the state, but it’s still legal federally and in the vast majority of states

    • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      Well the easy answer is because it’s not the land of the free.

      The more complicated answer involves explaining how it was only ever free to a select group of people. Suppose that’s still true. It’s just a narrower group than it used to be.