In this photo, a prison guard rides a horse alongside prisoners as they return from farm work detail at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La. After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment’s exception clause, that allows for prison labor, provided legal cover to round up thousands of mostly young Black men. They then were leased out by states to plantations like Angola and some of the country’s biggest privately owned companies, including coal mines and railroads. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The existence of prison plantations and cotton-picking work programs in the United States highlights the enduring legacy of slavery
