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The Lynching Of Mary Turner
Eight Months Pregnant and Lynched For Complaining About Her Husband's Lynching
Depending on the date you choose, slavery ended either on January 1, 1863 (the Emancipation Proclamation), April 9, 1865, when the Civil War Ended, June 19, 1865, when word got to Texas (Juneteenth), or December 6, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified. Ironically it was Georgia, where Mary Turner was born, which became the 27th state to ratify and approve the 13th Amendment, ending slavery throughout the United States. However, there is an exception to the 13th Amendment; enslavement was still allowed. Anyone convicted of a crime could still be considered a slave or indentured servant and be treated as such. For those individuals, enslavement wasn't over; it just had a new name.
"Section 1: 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." — 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Georgia was one of many states that exploited this practice to provide convict labor, slavery by another name, to local businesses, mostly farmers. Hampton Smith was a 25-year-old white planter who owned Old Joyce Place near Morven, GA, in Brooks County. Smith had a reputation…
