Within months of the Thirteenth Amendment's ratification, nine Southern states updated their vagrancy laws to solve a very specific problem: how to re-enslave people without technically violating the new constitution.

An helpful, downloadable, printable timeline of how slavery has evolved in Virginia from 1865 to today.

Two landmark legal victories in February 2026 are shaking the foundations of forced prison labor in America — and setting the stage for what comes next.