Voters in five states have the chance to wipe slavery and indentured servitude off the books
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction,” the amendment reads. The penalty has remained on the books in more than a dozen states, even though it hasn’t been enforced since the Civil War.
” Tennessee Tennessee’s measure asks that slavery and indentured servitude shall be “forever prohibited” while including, “nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.” Tennessee state Sen. Raumesh Akbari, who sponsored the resolution, said that its passage would “move a step closer toward reconciling the consequences of the slavery exception.