Slavery by Another Name:
Prompt – The author of Slavery by Another Name, Douglas Blackmon, writes in the epilogue to his book:
Certainly, the great record of forced labor across the South demands that any considerations of the progress of civil rights remedy in the United States must acknowledge that slavery, real slavery, didn’t end until 1945 . . . the clock must be reset.
Let us define this period of American life plainly and comprehensively. It was the Age of Neoslavery. Only by acknowledging the full extent of slavery’s grip on U.S. society – its intimate connections to present-day wealth and power, the depths of its injury to millions of black Americans, the shocking nearness in time of its true end – can we reconcile the paradoxes of
Do you feel that Blackmon’s work offered an effective presentation that added to your knowledge of the main themes of American history? Did you find his argument compelling?
Consider the historical sources Blackmon used, and how he organized and presented these materials. Cite references to evidence discussed in the book that helps illustrate your essay’s central arguments.