This movie is an exceptional–albeit extremely depressing–documentary on the post-civil war enslavement of African Americans. In it, the documentarians go into numerous topics, including the following:

• “Black Codes” and the institutional racism of the justice system
• Forced prison labor’s replacement of slave labor
• Prison privatization
• The economics of exploiting workers
• The lack of consequences for those who have victimized the powerless in our country’s history.

I would suggest that everybody who is interested in our country’s history in regard to race, as well as those who are interested in prison privatization watch this movie. Private prisons and prison labor advocates are attempting to recreate the system of exploitation that is described in this movie, and they are using the very same legal mechanisms to do it–this time, instead of “black codes” they are using the more subtle laws of drug prohibition, illegal immigration, and the school-to-prison pipeline in order to produce their workforce.

All credit for the movie goes to PBS and I have no legal rights to it. If you think that this movie is good and should be supported, I would suggest that you go to http://video.pbs.org/video/2176766758 and donate to PBS.