
13th Amendment. Used with permission of Benjamin Slyngstad.
In teaching about the wildfires in Los Angeles, include the role of incarcerated labor. The cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad can serve as a discussion prompt.
As reported on Democracy Now!,
Nearly a thousand of the firefighters deployed to help contain the devastating fires [in and around Los Angeles] are incarcerated. They have been working around the clock while earning as little as between $5.80 to $10.24 a day.
In the book and film, Slavery by Another Name, Douglas Blackmon explains how many businesses and police departments used the 13th Amendment exception for people who committed a crime to continue to exploit Black labor and knowledge. Blackmon was interviewed on this July 11, 2008 segment of Democracy Now! below.

Find resources below to teach about Reconstruction and find a curated collection of recommended books for pre–K-12 on incarceration in Teaching for Change’s Social Justice Books.
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