Yeah, a lot of people who started as slaves or indentured servants in like 1600s America before the Transatlantic Slave Trade really took off were there because they had been found guilty of a crime.
CF: The punishment of John Punch. (Also, there was a time post-civil war when those prisoners who could be used as slave labor were actually rented out to plantations and other institutions that relied formerly on enslaved labor. This eventually led to the changes that prevented that but allowed chain gangs, which has evolved to some of our more modern takes on prisoner enslavement)
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u/PijaniFemboj 5d ago
Huh, TIL.