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.
Explanation: The 13th amendment stated that the only time American citizens could be enslaved was for punishment for a crime. This law had a particularly adverse effect on African Americans, as they were often wrongfully criminalized and incarcerated at a much higher rate. So in essence, they often remained slaves when they were incarcerated. Before the Civil War slave codes were implemented in the south to restrict the movement of slaves. These laws (for example) stopped slaves from gathering together in groups at churches, from bearing arms and from reading and writing. The idea was to perpetuate and maintain the system of slavery. After the war was over southerners passed Black Codes, which were laws that greatly restricted the lives of free Blacks. After slaves were free, southerners were upset and tried to put Black people back into a position that was as close to slavery as possible. The Black Codes would eventually evolve into Jim Crow laws, which was a system of laws that criminalized Blackness and insured they would be incarcerated and lose their freedom for the most minor of offenses. The primary thing Jim Crow laws did was enforce a system of legal segregation all throughout the south for many years. Its legacy still has a great impact on the US today.
