(C) BoingBoing
This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



All slavery now officially banned in Tennessee [1]

['David Pescovitz']

Date: 2022-11-09

Until yesterday, the Tennessee Constitution included the following statement: "Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited in this state – except as punishment for a person who has been duly convicted of crime." A ballot measure has now passed with nearly 80% of the votes amending that section to read: "Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime."

Yes, in 1865 the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution mostly abolished slavery in the country, but it still allows it as a "punishment for crime." From CBS News:

State Senator Raumesh Akbari said in an interview with Fox Nashville last year that the amendment to the state's constitution would close that loophole. A bipartisan group of legislators supported the "Vote Yes on 3" campaign, which urged voters to adopt the ballot measure. "Words matter and in the constitution, there is still a resemblance of slavery leftover," Democratic State Rep. Joe Townes said in a bipartisan campaign ad with Republican Rep. Jeremy Faison. "It's important that we do away with all thoughts of slavery in our constitution," Faison said.





[END]
---
[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2022/11/09/all-slavery-now-officially-banned-in-tennessee.html

Published and (C) by BoingBoing
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.