A core theme that Blackmon explores in his book is how racism and Black oppression following the Civil War were not an inevitable sociological force but a series of individual, conscious decisions. The primary examples used are white judges and law enforcement officers who cooperated with white businessmen to create the forced labor system. Local officers like Francis M. Pruitt chose to arrest Black men on fraudulent charges. Justices of the peace, like Jesse London, agreed to preside over cases alleging false charges. White businessmen chose to buy or lease convicted Black men and abuse them. These decisions added up to further establish white Southerners’ belief that “a resubjugation of African Americans was an acceptable—even essential—element of solving the ‘Negro question’” (53).

The decisions of white Northerners and somewhat progressive Southerners also contributed to neo-slavery based on their desire for economic gain. Northerner investors financed several Southern businesses that utilized forced labor despite the North’s alleged support of Black people’s rights. Judge Jones, an apparent progressive, caved to white anger during the slavery trials and ruled that white men could enter exploitative contracts with convicted Black men if a local judge approved it. Nearly every major player in this book, from President Roosevelt to the Supreme Court to mining companies, made a crucial decision that upheld slavery in some fashion.