The similarity of the Angola slave plantation to Angola the penal institution is virtually indistinguishable. Even the process of entrapment in Africa and the journey to the New World to the process of arrest to incarceration is similar. In place of the trading company, there is the U.S. government. The kidnappers and slave traders are faithfully represented by the criminal justice system and executed by law enforcement agencies. The abduction is substituted by the arrest. The slave ship journey through the middle passage is represented by county jail, plea-bargaining and trial. Finally, there is the sale (conviction, sentencing and the jury/judges decision) concluding with the final delivery to the plantation (prison) and hard labor (no substitute necessary).
Once in prison, there is a physical approximation with similar intent and considerations between the slave hold and the prison cell. As Dr. Dennis Child's states "The slave ship and the constricted space of the prison cell-underlines a direct spatial correlation between two putatively distinct systems of captivity. The area allotted to one black man aboard the slave ship Brookes -six feet by one foot four inches-directly resembles the specifications of today's jail cells." In reality, all comparisons pale in respect to one major similarity. 80% of the convicts at Angola are black.
At Angola prison there is one way that the prison distinguishes itself from the plantation and that is in sheer brutality and the amount of spilled blood. For the first 100 years of the prison the brutality exceeded that of the former plantation. In the early years the prisoners were used in any way those in power saw fit.
Further degradations pervaded the slave-master mentality of those in charge at Angola. For instance, the Minstrel show mentioned above "...where inmates at the all black barrack were given the privilege of traveling around the area immediate to the prison grounds if they donned burnt cork and performed " And not to be forgotten is the ongoing yearly "rodeo", where inmates are regularly maimed and seriously injured as they jump into a gladiator type ring before a paying public for prize money that typically does not exceed $50, which represents almost 8 months wages at the current 4 cents per hour.
Despite the similarity to chattel slavery as exemplified through the similarities and degradations mentioned above, the larger point is that chattel slavery and the idea of the inferiority of blacks within the southern plantation economy served as the model for the modern penal institution in the United States. It took but a few minor nuanced transmutations for whites to adopt the culture of slavery and codify it into a new system that once again remanded blacks into their previous position as the lowest caste. Once that was achieved, prisons became the de facto symbol of a new geographic apartheid, a tangible symbol of white power and a high tech form of institutional racism and a source of shame in the international community.
This transformation occurred shortly after and through emancipation and reconstruction. In this way the abstract notion of Black freedom and Black rights granted to packs of recently emancipated, yet confused and hopeful slaves, was swept and shoveled away. And the south which had momentarily risen in fright to look curiously down upon these Blacks to see what they would do and how they would do it, once again comfortably eased themselves down into the comfort of the prior order. And so before it had the chance to take a single breath, the possibility for advancement and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness were exorcised from the imaginations of blacks in the north and south alike.
History shows that prior to emancipation, there was no formalized "prison system" in the United States. Although Auburn prison was built in 1817 and the Western Prison "panopticon" in Pennsylvania was constructed in 1826 (and it's first inmate a Black man), it took the end of the Civil war for the Current prison system in the United States to gain ground and full-scale implementation. Before the Civil War, the great majority of Louisiana's convicts were white. When the Civil War freed the slaves and granted them the rights of citizenship, overnight, in Louisiana and the other Southern prisons, the prison population became predominantly black. In Louisiana and in the other states that established large prison farming operations, "convict," "slave," "Negro," and "farm work" became synonymous terms in the public and political mind.
Angola Prison or, "The Farm" sits in Louisiana, on 18,000 acres bordering the Mississippi river, a geography that lends itself to the habitation of alligators, snakes and impassable miles of swamp such that it is the only high security prison in the nation with no walls. Originally, a slave plantation, in 1865 it was born again in 1880 as the new Louisiana State Prison when Major James purchased an 8,000-acre plantation in West Feliciana Parish called "Angola", named for the area in Africa where most of the slaves in that region came from. Prisoners worked its fields, and lived in the former slave quarters and most of the "hard labor" was done in the form of levee construction throughout the state.
The prisoners, having been leased to Major James and his family, were used and rented out in any way Major James saw fit to profit from the fruit of the inmates labors with little regard for the perilous nature of the work or the resultant body count. In 1901 the State of Louisiana resumed control of the inmates, ending 55 years of the lease system. At this time the Louisiana Board of Control purchased the land from Major James. Under the new state system the death rate among inmates was reduced by 72%. The Annual Report of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, from 1901, shows that the last seven years of the lease to Major James, (from 1894 to 1900), 732 convicts, averaging over 100 a year, died. Convicts lives were virtually worthless. In slavery, the plantation owner had an investment. In incarceration, the lives are "free" and there are always replacements.
Briefly, in 1903 and 1912 floods ruined the crops and put Angola in economic chaos much to the consternation of the cash strapped Louisiana State government. By 1916 the inmates were once again leased out due to financial considerations. Mr. Henry L. Fuqua was named general manager of the penitentiary. One of Mr. Fuqua's first moves was to fire almost all of the security officers at Angola and replace them with inmate trusty guards. In a series of eight purchases in a year and a half, Henry Fuqua purchased 10,000 acres of land, removed the remaining free sharecroppers, which brought Angola to its present size of 18,000 acres.
As late as 1961, The Louisiana Corrections' budget was drastically reduced and a period of decline began and Angola became known as "The Bloodiest Prison in the South". Up until the 1950's any sentence longer than 3 years was considered a death sentence, seeing as it was the rare exception that an inmate survived more than 3 years. The use of trustee's (who were virtually all white) rather than guards and the expectation of a high death rate were all factors in Angola being generally regarded as the "worst" and the "bloodiest" prison in the United States as well as the prison most like that of plantations long passed. It wasn't until 1994 that the American Correctional Association (ACA) accredited Angola, which is a certification that the institution is "stable, safe and constitutional"
Angloa also has some other traits that link it directly to the legacy of slavery. Its convicts have always done farm work and over 99% of inmates that are certified as being physically able to work do so. Currently these inmates grow over 4,000,000 pounds of soybeans, corn, squash and potatoes to feed all of Louisiana's prisoners. Angola is also extremely isolated and located in a remote part of the state making it hard to visit and it's expanse is such that questionable prison practices are easy to keep out of the eyes of visitors and advocates. Angola has always had a "master-servant" relationship scheme with guards in the fields mounted on horseback with shotguns and up until the mid-19th century, whips. Convicts dwell in an over 100-year culture of subservience to their keepers who exercise absolute authority.
Convict leasing developed as a way for the state of Louisiana to maintain a virtual prison without the expense of an actual prison. The first leaseholder at Angola was the private firm of Mc Hatton Pratt and Company. The major form of work they engaged in was a large-scale public works. Leased inmates would live on the plantations on and live within former slave quarters.
Convict leasing is an exceptionally brutal form of hard labor. The death rate of prisoners leased to railroad companies between 1877 and 1879 was 16 percent in Mississippi, 25 percent in Arkansas, and 45 percent in South Carolina. And this type of brutal work was reserved for Black inmates almost exclusively. In 1878 1,239 Georgian inmates were leased out. Only 115 of them were not Black. Inmates not leased simply worked the plantation at Angola. This system was racist, profitable and on a level of brutality rivaling the Nazi death camps and Stalinist work camps. The brutality was to a point that southern whites who were already desensitized to the brutality of Black servitude lead a public outcry to end the leasing practice. In 1952 31 inmates cut their Achilles' tendon as protest to the brutal conditions, which combined with the public outcry that eventually led to a series of reforms and the end of inmate leasing. Convict leasing ended in the mid-50s at Angola, whereas by the 1930s, every other state in the nation had abolished the practice of convict leasing.
Official chattel slavery began in the new world in 1619 when John Rolfe landed in Jamestown with 20 African slaves. In the next year, 1620, 11 black slaves of African and mixed ethnicity were introduced in New Amsterdam. Working side by side with white indentured servants, these men labored to lay the foundations of New York. At this time, there were no laws defining limitations placed on slaves. Slaves could bring suits to court, earn wages and legally marry. Soon this all changed as the agricultural economy grew and the profits of the planters and the economics of the burgeoning plantation system called for more laborers. How this need transformed itself into the descent into slavery occurred over several stages, over several years from both economic expediance provided the impetus for legalizing racial oppression.
In the 1640s the English definition of who can be enslaved begins to shift from non-Christian to non-white. By 1661, a Virginia court legalizes slavery and decides that children born will be free or slave “according to the condition of the mother”. In 1691 landowners pass a law stating that it is illegal to free a black slave. And in 1750 Virginia passes laws relegating all slaves to the status of property.
After the Stono Rebellion on 1739 the “Negro Act is passed which takes away African’s freedom of movement, assembly and outlaws their right to earn money or to read. This act becomes the model for slaves throughout the colonies. This is the first act that not only codifies and seals slavery as a legacy in this country, but this series of acts from 1640 to 1739 sets a legal precedent that is enforced today as the current legalized system of incarceration of blacks, denying them opportunities for economic advancement (home loans, business and farm loans, credit, etc) and denies them access to educational opportunities.
From the construction of Wall Street, to the tending of the fields to the comfort offered to the White masters through the raping of the Black womb as well as the profits made form the children of such unions the economic gains of enslaving Africans is the most important factor in the making of America as a superpower.
There has always been a dual purpose to slavery, to enrich Whites and to serve as an example of the white races' dominion over the earth and all it's creatures. The principle, through time, justified by various substituted and legally justified means is that blacks are inferior and to be exploited, segregated, manipulated and excluded at every turn. And so when slavery was outlawed in 1865, the entire United States, lead by the former confederate states frantically worked to re-engineer itself in spatial, legal, political and economic terms so as to codify the new calculus of institutionalized racism. And yet, throughout this monumental effort, whites have continually professed that the black is inferior and that it is through no action of their own that blacks have found themselves in their current state. Such lies are manufactured and supported ironically to maintain the integrity of the principles of America as a land of freedom and opportunity. In the final analysis, the investment of esteem by the white race as being superior, and the maintenance of a racial hierarchy is dependent on the continuing propaganda war of blacks inferiority as the primary, secondary and tertiary explanations of all current disparities.
Today, such arguments remain as well understood, accepted and unspoken truths just below the surface of all analysis, discussion and awareness of black oppression; for if black are not being discriminated against and they are not being unfairly targeted, and institutionalized racism and codified practices are not to explain for the vast disparities, what is left for the individual of average intelligence to conclude? Can it not be a consideration that perhaps blacks are inferior and that this is the underlying, all encompassing explanation?
Blacks are the most disempowered political and racial group. A condition that came about due to the multi-generational effect of law, racism, oppression and impoverishment. As such there is little resistance to blacks being targeted unfairly. for 400 years, the image of blacks as prone to violence, shiftlessness and immoral has represented a social investment of racist and business interest as a means to support the institution of slavery. To be able to point to the wholesale incarceration of black males is a tangible offering to the community that fits in with their pre-disposed ideals of criminality and serves to justify the claims of a greater level of safety and that more police are justified. Politician’s on every level have beat the horse of black incarceration to death on the campaign stump, and with the success that such shows have garnered there is no signs of this trend fading.
The counter-culture movement flew in the face of the status quo. In combination with the civil rights movement, the proletariat underground within the United States was on the verge of making real change in terms of recognizing the potential of Blacks, the rewards of freedom and gaining support both politically, academically and socially for a pro-empowerment agenda. Lead by this surge of hopefulness, blacks were looking for real opportunities, as groups such as the Black Panthers, the Deacons of Defense, SNCC, CORE, NAACP and liberal and radical white allies came together with University professors and previously disaffected white college students that now found themselves being sent off to war.
On the other side was Nixon and his "silent majority", Cointelpro lead by J. Edgar Hoover and domestic counter-surveillance, which teamed with local law enforcement agencies and snitches to provide the motive for wholesale destruction. Cointelpro, successfully stifled Black, Native-American and radical white leadership through the planting of evidence, assassination, illegal wiretaps, propaganda, false confessions, infiltration and character assassination. The U.S. government expanded and systematized the legal strategies learned through such operations and domesticated it into the current state of repression. White allies backed down, as they witnessed the unchallenged strength of the government and their realization that they would be allowed to flee while black bodies were battered and slaughtered.
A traditional fear and paranoia of Blacks by white oppressors has been the hallmark of the ongoing propaganda war. Just as in the invasion of Iraq, all manner of illegal killings, wars, human rights abuses, etc, are justified through the portrayal of "the other" as an imminent threat to the U.S., our philosophy, our safety or our way of life. yet, there is no threat or blow to counter. So the pre-emptive strike is necessarily pre-emptive. Evidence is manufactured, coalitions of conservative whites and upper crust minorities move together while manufactured consent is obtained to target innocent parties with illegal acts based on the philosophy of "self-defense".
As an example, contrast the treatment of groups such as MOVE and The Black Panthers with white groups like the Weathermen and the citizen's commission to investigate the FBI. The Weathermen attempted to stage a well-publicized riot through the streets of Chicago, destroying property as hundreds of Chicago police officers watching. There were few arrests and no serious sentences handed out. The Weathermen were responsible for two bombings, one of a police statue and a Greenwich Village apartment where three weathermen were killed. Years later, Jimmy Carter offered ‘amnesty’ to draft dodgers and despite the bombings and threats, most of the weathermen were pardoned and allowed to assume their previous positions in society with a few receiving probation.
The citizen's commission to investigate the FBI broke into an FBI office and stole over 1,000 classified documents. No one was every caught or charged. Meanwhile, the Black Panthers who were called, "the greatest threat to internal security of the country" by J. Edgar Hoover were slaughtered, (Bobby Hutton, Fred Hampton) and dozens were jailed, framed or run out of the country. According to Angela Davis, "Police, assisted by federal agents, had killed or assassinated over twenty black revolutionaries in the Black Panther Party.”
The disparity in cocaine sentencing laws is an efficient means to imprisoning blacks as a way of demonstrating effectiveness of drug enforcement. Meanwhile high level drug dealers, such as Manuel Noriega, who was a CIA informant, and leader of a country that allowed millions of tons of cocaine to be trafficked into the U.S. served only 20 years of a 40 year sentence. The United States Attorney negotiated deals with 26 different drug felons, who were given leniency, cash payments, and allowed to keep their drug earnings in return for testimony against Noriega. Contrast this with Louisiana state law that doles out a sentence of 10-30 years for cocaine "manufacture" (any amount). Cocaine laws are a farce, the only purpose they serve is to incarcerate Blacks and to give the perception of law enforcement effectiveness. Once again, the primary factor is race, the ability to purchase a defense, and the perception of law enforcement effectiveness against a system of drug trafficking that the highest levels of the government is complicit in.
Reported Gary Webb of The San Jose Mercury News. The three-part series, "Dark Alliance," asserted that members of the CIA's army in Nicaragua helped spark a crack cocaine explosion in urban America in the 1980s. The report said two Nicaraguans, sold tons of cocaine to a well-known Los Angeles drug dealer, with the knowledge of the U.S. government. The articles said these two Nicaraguans funneled millions of dollars in profits to CIA-backed rebels fighting the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua with the CIA’s knowledge, logistical support and protection.
The fact that 1/4 blacks are either on parole, probation, in jail or in prison removes several million individuals from competition for jobs, educational opportunities, housing, social programs and most importantly, from addressing these social ills through political means by way of felony disenfranchisement. As of 1999, 1,367,100 black men have been denied the right to vote, and that number is growing (also from Shalom, 2000). This group is one of many whose disenfranchisement won George W. Bush the 2000 election. Incarceration is but part of the overall equation. Allowing/facilitating large quantities of drugs and weapons to filter into the community provides a convenient means of demonstrating criminal justice effectiveness when law enforcement “stings” take place after the body count has reached a high enough level.
Dilapidated social programs, that lead to poor health care, nutrition, and educational opportunities and the effect of broken families, torn apart by the influx of cheap drugs, weapons, lack of opportunity and the educational opportunities needed to garner employment and living wages. for every Black man incarcerated, there are one to several children growing up without a father and a mother struggling to provide for them.
Another side of the formula is the self-fulfilling prophecy, of the inability of Black students to compete or pay for college and higher educational opportunities due to poor schools, disrupted families and proven racist admissions criteria such as standardized test scores, extra weight given to suburban and rural schools, enriched facilities, higher income levels and extra points for advanced placement classes.
Summary
The modern prison industrial complex is a simple extension of the legacy of slavery in this country. Through enforced policies that guarantee disparity to unfairly targeting black neighborhoods, racial profiling and disparities in drug sentencing, blacks are incarcerated at a rate 8.2 times the rate of whites nationwide. In sentencing, blacks receive poorer defense, longer sentences and are less likely to be awarded parole. Through felony disenfranchisement, a disproportionate amount of black males have lost the right to vote as well as eligibility to a host of enrichment and self-improvement opportunities such as housing, job training, educational grants and loans as well as any job that requires a background check.
Black communities have been devastated through neglect and the destruction of the black household and an emphasis on law enforcement that has robbed the community of social service programs. Black schools have less experienced teachers, less enrichment opportunities, poorer facilities and materials. Black students are more likely to be expelled, suspended and placed in remedial classes while being denied advanced placement opportunities that are given to white with equal or lower ability. In higher educational opportunities, disparities exist in recruitment and the provision of scholarships and grants, which are largely based on standardized tests that show no correlation to academic performance and are most highly correlated with income of the family of origin. In addition, with the spiraling cost of tuition, blacks are at a disadvantage, as many whites are able to tap into home equity to pay for college, whereas for blacks, through the systemized enforcement of redlining and collusion with banks and lending organizations, were denied the opportunity to partake in the greatest form of wealth creation in this nations history –home ownership.
Many of the laws and strategies are thinly and often times undisguised continuations of policies developed for through the course of this nation’s 450 years of legalized slavery. When slavery ended there was the black codes and Jim crow, today, through felony rights losses, curfews in certain neighborhoods, gang affiliation laws restricting the movement of parolees and felons, as well as denial of federally subsidized housing, many blacks are living under new “black codes”.
In order to address these disparities and inequities will require a wholesale overhaul of not only the criminal justice system, but also the laws, prosecution priorities, law enforcement strategies, and access to enrichment, health, welfare and higher educational opportunities. Such changes will be very hard seeing as this nation has codified and created a system that relies as heavily on cultural and economic exclusion today, as it did racial exclusion in the past. Such changes will require that all individuals, all Americans demand equity and specifically, that white Americans be willing to exchange the advantages of white privilege for equality and no longer silently comply with these systems simply because it makes them feel “special” “intelligent” or that they simply benefit from them.
It is highly doubtful that such changes will take place. The prognosis is poor. This nation is simply too heavily invested in maintenance of the current system that creates bountiful opportunities for whites, by blocking opportunities for blacks. One of the major problems is that whites wish to pretend that they are at an advantage through “hard work” and that they have “earned” their fruits. They simply do not want to see the vast benefits of white privilege that literally hang in the air for their asking.
In the final analysis, conditions for black Americans today are as dire as they have ever been in a nation that professes to be “free”, and where all may pursue and enjoy the fruits of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
