Slavery by Another Name opens with a statement about the arrest of Green Cottenham on March 30, 1908, in Alabama for “vagrancy,” or being unable to prove he was employed. Vagrancy was a law put into effect around the end of the 19th century and largely wielded by authorities to criminalize Black men who could not be charged with another crime. Cottenham was found guilty and sentenced to almost one year of hard labor. However, after Cottenham’s conviction, the county legally sold him—a free Black man living in the US—to Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company. The company was part of US Steel, a large industrial company of the North. The company paid off Cottenham’s fine and court fees so he could be forced into hard labor in the Pratt Mines outside of Birmingham. There, he spent hours every day removing coal, which was essential to US Steel’s iron production. At night, Cottenham was placed in chains. In these conditions, disease swarmed the other forced laborers in the mines. Their dead bodies were disposed of in shallow graves or incinerated in the ovens used to blast coal.

Blackmon asserts that these men were effectively—if not legally—slaves. He describes visiting the graves of these men—including the likely spot of Cottenham’s burial—in the summer of 2000.