・・・ #OnThisDay in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, officially ending the institution of slavery, is ratified. (This was in fact the first introduction of the word "slavery" into the Constitution.) But, there were two major caveats. First, black people were freed without any resources or means if supporting themselves among the people who had enslaved them and still hated them. That's why Frederick Douglass called it freedom to hunger. Second, the amendment included this clause: "Except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This laid the groundwork for America to use the legal system and mass incarceration to maintain a demi-slavery that persists to this day.