Great story and thanks again. I heard he was from Minnesota in the short version I read, but there are usually small differences from multiple accounts, especially when convict leasing is concerned. Technically, the government of state of Florida, after they had “duly convicted”, bound Martin’s labor up into a contract, using the 13th amendment and reflected in Florida state law, then sold him to the lumber company under that contractual lease for a set amount of time that paralleled the prison sentence. The Florida government technically took away this man’s human right to use his own labor, or to be free from enslavement, and rented him out for money, now called “revenue.” He was a Constitutional slave, derived from permission in the 13th called “slavery or involuntary servitude.” He was a white slave. Convict Leasing in a like car leasing. The title is held by the state while drive pays a fee to use it. Although laws were altered in Florida were altered because of this “outrage” of a young white man being beaten to death as a slave or involuntary servant, the US constitution did not change and the permission structure remains today. That is unaltered.
Today, Florida has Pride Enterprises, a vast misnomer. It uses primarily black and brown human being to manufacture goods that are sold for “revenue.” The CEO’s salary, a white last I checked, comes from the sale of those goods, as does the salary of others working for this state sanctioned “non-profit.” The salaries are paid from NOT paying the primarily minority workers (though some Martin whites could be there as well, as it’s an arbitrary decision). In other words, Black and Brown Americans furnish goods to be sold and don’t get the money or wages from their labor and it goes to a rich white man, and his employees. The same as slaves or involuntary servants who picked cotton. The technical head of operations is the Governor. It’s not “like” slavery, it is. That’s the word in the US Constitution where the permission structure entered under the 13th. Most Americans believe anything party leaders and textbooks say. I don’t, and neither does Congresswoman Williams who proposed the abolish bill to Congress or Senator Booker and Senators Markley (from Oregon) who sponsored it in the Senate. They can’t sponsor a bill to abolish something that doesn’t exist. Californians this year and Louisianans in 2022 voted to keep “slavery or involuntary servitude” as permission structures taken directly from the 13th. The Black Americans and their allies lost the vote, by about 46 and 36 percent respectively. They voted to end slavery or involuntary. They lost. They didn’t get much support from the media, and there is little outrage around the country.
