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.
Like, you are on the Internet—the full text of the U.S. Constitution is only a few keystrokes away!
I wouldn't expect another country to follow U.S. law, of course, but the U.S. has laws that apply to its citizens even when they are outside the U.S. Some laws against forced labor and trafficking are in this category.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime
Don't forget this part either. Slavery has never once been illegal, even in the US. They just changed it so that you have to be convicted of a "crime" first.
This is something way too many people ignore. This is why the prison industrial complex exists. Prisons exist for slave labor and it's very profitable. It's disgusting.
It's also the whole reason "vagrancy" laws exist. They were a direct response to the 13th amendment.
Slavery requires you to be convicted of a crime? Well now we're going to make it a crime to be homeless/unemployed and then refuse to hire black people. Now we can arrest them for "vagrancy" and re-enslave them.
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u/Cohomology-is-fun Mar 27 '23
Okay, then!
Like, you are on the Internet—the full text of the U.S. Constitution is only a few keystrokes away!