The treadmill was originally a huge piece of machinery Britain installed within their prison systems as corporal punishment. In Jamaica, Britain used this punishment to invent a new form of slavery – one that still exists today!
In the 1830s Britain was moving towards emancipation – or at least that’s what they said! In reality, they didn’t want to lose the “free labor” slavery provided.
They forced incarcerated Jamaicans to walk for hours on large treadmills, the mill grinding grains for British export. Prisoners were chained to bars, the treadmill moving so fast they appeared to be dancing – the slightest trip could be deadly.
Treadmills were even used throughout America’s southern states only merely as a torture device. Still it gets worse.
White abolitionists approved of the torturous treadmill! On paper, Britain abolished slavery in 1834 - the reality is, they used prisons to create a new form of slavery, one that still exists today on a global scale.
In 2022, roughly 1.9 million people are incarcerated in America – Black people are 38% of this population. America’s 13th Amendment abolished slavery “except as punishment for crime.”
Initially, white supremacist governments only agreed to “emancipate” enslaved Africans once they had the next steps for enslavement in place – the prison industrial complex. America’s incarceral system is “modern-day slavery.”
Police equal enslavers - #abolishthepolice.