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The Plantation Never Died: How Incarceration Fuels the Corporation Slavery did not end in 1865. It evolved. The plantation was never dismantled; it was absorbed into the corporation of white supremacy. What once happened under the whip now happens under the law. The same system that auctioned Africans on blocks now auctions prison contracts. The same hunger for Black labor, Black profit, and Black control still feeds—only the chains have changed. \ From the moment the 13th Amendment carved out its exception—"except as punishment for crime"—the corporation had its loophole. Freedom was offered with one hand and stolen with the other. Black life was criminalized, policed, and funneled back into the system, not as citizens, but as assets—bodies to be tracked, exploited, and controlled. This was no accident. Vagrancy laws, Black Codes, and convict leasing became corporate policy long before mass incarceration had a name. The courts, the police, the prisons—all became subsidiaries...

 

The Constitution Has Been Hijacked, and Democracy Is Now a Commodity Being Sold by the Corporation

The Constitution was written as a promise, but in the hands of the corporation, it has become a contract — a contract that the poor never signed, and the rich never stop amending. What was supposed to guarantee liberty now guarantees access, but only if you can afford the price of admission.


The corporation has hijacked the Constitution, and democracy itself has been turned into a commodity.

Democracy for the Rich

The wealthy do not fear losing their rights because they can buy them back. With lawyers, lobbyists, and political donations, they bend the Constitution into a shield that protects their property, their profits, and their power. For them, democracy is a private club. Membership is expensive, but once you’re in, the rules no longer apply.

Money buys freedom of speech in the form of billion-dollar media companies. Money buys freedom from prosecution in the form of settlements and lobbyist-crafted laws. Money buys influence so strong that the Constitution bends, silently, to corporate will.

No Democracy for the Poor

But for the poor, democracy is a ghost. The rights exist on paper, but in practice they are denied. Voting rights are stripped through suppression laws and gerrymandering. Free speech ends at the protest line where police batons wait. Due process disappears when public defenders carry caseloads too heavy to breathe.

For the poor, the Constitution is not a shield. It is a mirror, reflecting a freedom they are told exists but can never touch. Under the corporation, the poor are not citizens. They are assets, labor, consumers, bodies to be managed, and voices to be silenced.

The Corporation’s Marketplace

The corporation has turned democracy into a storefront. Rights are no longer inalienable — they are products with a price tag. Health care, education, housing, even safety — all auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The rich enjoy democracy like a luxury brand, while the poor stand outside the window, looking in. The Constitution has not vanished — it has been sold. And the bill of sale is written in the blood and sweat of the people who can least afford it.

The Radical Truth

A democracy that can be bought is not a democracy at all. It is management — citizens reduced to inventory, rights reduced to commodities, freedom reduced to a sales pitch. The corporation has replaced the republic. And unless we name it, resist it, and strip it of power, we will not be governed. We will be owned.

Next Chapter

If democracy is for sale, then ask yourself this: what happens when the corporation runs out of things to sell?

The answer is prison, labor, and control — the plantation reborn.

Stay tuned for Chapter 3:
“The Plantation Never Died: How Incarceration Fuels the Corporation.”