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Most Americans can tell you what the 13th Amendment did.
Far fewer can tell you how the sentence ends.
In this episode, AJ Miller examines one of the most debated words in the Constitution: EXCEPT
Why did Congress abolish slavery while allowing an exception for punishment after conviction? What did lawmakers intend? What happened immediately after the amendment was ratified? And why are states still rewriting their constitutions nearly 160 years later?
From the debates surrounding abolition to Black Codes, convict leasing, prison labor, and modern reform efforts, this episode follows the history, the receipts, and the questions that continue to shape the conversation today.
Because sometimes the most important part of a law isn't what everybody remembers.
It's the part they stopped reading.
By AJ Miller (Unicorn)Most Americans can tell you what the 13th Amendment did.
Far fewer can tell you how the sentence ends.
In this episode, AJ Miller examines one of the most debated words in the Constitution: EXCEPT
Why did Congress abolish slavery while allowing an exception for punishment after conviction? What did lawmakers intend? What happened immediately after the amendment was ratified? And why are states still rewriting their constitutions nearly 160 years later?
From the debates surrounding abolition to Black Codes, convict leasing, prison labor, and modern reform efforts, this episode follows the history, the receipts, and the questions that continue to shape the conversation today.
Because sometimes the most important part of a law isn't what everybody remembers.
It's the part they stopped reading.