Chattel slavery was outlawed in the US in the early 1940s, not in the 1800s.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Source: U.S. Constitution, article VI, paragraph 2
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.
…
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.
Source: U.S. Constitution, amendment XIII, section 1 (along with the note above that section stating the date it was passed and ratified)
Slavery in the US was outlawed in 1865. Corrupt assholes breaking laws doesn’t mean those laws aren’t in effect, it just means they’re criminals.
This isn’t wrong, but it never had any sort of effect on debt bondage.
Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person’s services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, the person who holds the debt has thus some control over the laborer, whose freedom depends on the undefined debt repayment.
The problem here is that the U.S. had black codes and Jim Crow laws, things created specifically to target black people. These by and large restricted black people from owning property, marry freely, enter contracts, testify in court against white people, speaking too loudly in the presence of a white woman.
Breaking these meant that the person in question would be tried and convicted, thus entering debt. A white person could then buy this debt, and the black person would have to “work off” this debt for an indeterminate amount of time.
This was in place for a very long time, and wasn’t overturned until 1941 when the office of the attorney general issued circular 3591, classifying debt peonage as slavery. They did this because the FDR administration was worried that the enemies would use the American treatment of black people against them in a propaganda war.
