Five US states are asking voters if they want to 'wipe slavery ' from the record books.
Next month voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Vermont, Oregon and Tennessee will get the chance to wipe slavery from their states' constitutions forever, thanks to a pending ballot initiative.
Slavery, which was outlawed in the US in 1865, has remained on the books in nearly twenty states but has not been used since the Civil War.
The initiative is part of wider national effort looking to amend the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution which banned enslavement or involuntary servitude except as a form of criminal punishment.
It had one exception in the 13th Amendment, which states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
And now the proposed amendment would give voters the chance to explicitly rule out slavery as potential punishments - or remove some of the terms from the law all-together.
Whilst the constitution banned slavery or involuntary servitude except as a form of criminal punishment, some states have exploited prisoners for labour.
Although none the proposed changes would force immediate changes inside the states prisons', there could be potential legal challenges on how prison labour is used.
There has been criticism for years over prison labour as many convicted prisoners who refuse to work could be denied visits and phone calls with family.
At the moment some prisoners are punished by being forced to stay away from inmates and others could be denied parole if they fail to complete the work.
The proposed initiative has been praised by campaign groups seeking to remove the clause from the 13th Amendment.
Bianca Tylek, the executive director of Worth Rises, which is a non-profit campaign group, told CNN: “If their populaces vote for this at the state level, then we have to believe that their congressional representatives will also have to support it as a federal measure.
“The more states that do this, the more federal support we can garner.”
The group says it is long overdue and that eventually it will lead to the removal of the language from the 13th Amendment.
There are nearly twenty states which have constitutions that have language which permits slavery as criminal punishments.
But in 2018, Colorado was the first ever state to remove the language from its constitutions after asking voters - with Nebraska and Utah joining them two years later.
In November, similar questions will go to voters in Vermont, Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee.
Tennessean voters more will be given a clear choice of the language which they could scrap.
It reads: “Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.”
Whilst Alabama will ask voters to delete all its racist language from the constitution, Vermont would look to change its language to "slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited in this State.”
Oregon would look to repeal the exception clause while adding language to allow a court to order alternatives for prison sentences.
And Louisiana so far has had opposition to its current amendment after it was criticised for having loopholes as campaigners urged them to follow Tennessee's language.
