Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

Just started the book,but understand now why progress is so slow.The black americans have had the government standing on their backs since day one.If you have any evidence of African blood you need to know your limitations.

I hope Mr. Blackmon's book sells well. He has documented a piece of history of which too many of us were unaware. I pretty much agree with the other five-star reviews, so I won't echo them in mine.

Born in New York City in 1930 and raised there, as a child I accompanied my parents on annual trips to back country Georgia to visit my father's racist, redneck family. I saw first hand the discrimination and humiliation of the Jim Crow South as well as the abject poverty of the sharecropper system. I remember seeing the stripe-suited chain gangs along the roads and my parents explaining that those men were "jailbirds." However, I was totally ignorant of the conditions of slavery in the mines and of how African-Americans were "convicted" and sold.

I'm probably not qualified to judge the quality of the author's research, but the quantity was certainly impressive. Therefore, I was quite surprised that a reporter for the Wall Street Journal would mistakenly attribute (on page 111) "a more perfect union" to the Declaration of Independence. If Mr. Blackmon reads these reviews, I hope he will accept that small bit of constructive criticism in the spirit in which it was written as I truly appreciate and applaud his important work.

This is a painful but necessary read. It puts meat on the skeletal knowledge we have of the Jim Crow era and illustrates just how nasty the southern half of the US was... explaining a lot about some of the current backwardness there as well.

This is a difficult book to read, not complicated or disorientating, but psychologically unnerving. It points out how this Nation of America has not lived up to the phase "A more perfect union" or Lincoln's Gettysburg address. I don't think I could travel to the south without a sense of disgust. As a companion, I also read about Rhode Island's DeWolf family and between the two, I feel much is being missed in school about the true America.

This book is a remarkable revelation of a truly barbaric form of slavery that existed in America after the Civil War and up to World War II. It well documents the institutionalization of slavery by both local and state governments and the lack of power by the federal government to stop it, and even frequently the lack of will and leadership. The book is fairly light on events from about 1910 to World War II. I highly recommend it to adults but you may need a strong stomach and perhaps some valium as well to make it through the first half, due to the very rough and barbaric nature of how slaves were treated. The second half is easier to take. Young children should not be exposed to this material - let them keep their innocence a little while longer and until they have matured enough to handle it.