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FREEDOMWAYS        FOURTH QUARTER 1966

These were the steps by which the plantation as a political and economic institution of oppression became a fixed feature of the "New South."

Forced labor, another mechanism of colonial rule in Africa, especially used by the French colonialists in Guinea and the Belgians in the Congo, was implemented by the United States colonialism within its own borders in the form of the convict lease system.  Under this system prisoners were leased to plantation landlords and other business enterprises by the State which in turn charged the landlords and kept the revenue.  George led the way in institutionalizing this form of exploitation and it became such a lucrative source of income for the state that it was adopted all across the South. This system was complemented by the infamous Black Codes, a body of legislation which made it easier for the Negro to get arrested and thrown into prison, on such charges as "vagrancy."

The Poll Tax, one of the most common and widely used methods of taxation imposed by the colonialists (for example in Northern and Southern Rhodesia), was of course enforced in every southern state, as is well known.  Despite the fact that the Poll Tax did not apply exclusively to the black population in our country it was most effective in disfranchising them because they could least afford to pay the Poll Tax.

It is important to note that in most colonial relationships the Poll Tax is usually one of a series of taxes designed to force the colonized to pay the financial costs of the colonial administration.  In the United States, however, the Poll Tax was one of a series of political measures less concerned with raising finances than it was designed to strip the black population of political power.  The Poll Tax, the "Grandfather Clause" written into the state constitutions in the South, with exclusive "White Primary" elections of the Democratic Party, and the defeat of the Lodge Bill in the U.S. Senate (1891) (which would have provided for Federal registrars to supervise all elections) all aimed at wiping out the benefits of the 15th Amendment.  This was the key to consolidating the state power of the racist-colonial regimes in the south.  The mechanism is the same; tailored to fit the class interests of the colonial power.

The establishment of a system of racial segregation ("Apartheid") in its many variations is another mechanism of colonial rule. This is so obviously a part of the American social order it needs no elaboration here.  What is important to an understanding of our American experience is, that with the addition of segregation to

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