People in power control the world around them. This includes the government, which in turn means the judicial system. What happens when society doesn't resemble the dream of those in control? They manipulate the rules in an attempt to make dreams come true. In the nineteenth century, after the Civil War, the government and citizens had a particular vision in mind. Some wanted whites to still have control over African Americans, others wanted streets without homeless people and without jobs. Although these are different approaches, the main goal was to “fix” the appearance of society, to keep the streets presentable, and to create contributing members of society from the less fortunate. The Civil War ended in 1863, and the “Autobiography of an Imprisoned Peon” was delivered by a man who was alive at the end of the war and was employed by a plantation owner before the age of ten (22). The man signed numerous contracts and continued to work on the same plantation in Georgia. As the plantation changed hands, conditions changed and eventually led to workers being treated like prisoners and working alongside actual prisoners. Conditions included horrible housing, taking women from their husbands, and punishments including death. Several rules had to be followed. One of these rules was that workers had to purchase all supplies from a store. “In this shop they made us pay very high prices for the goods, because every year we went into debt with our employer” (25). Ending the year in debt meant you owed something to the contract holder. Since they had no money, they were forced to pay with hard work. Who could impose such horrible conditions on these people just because they were African… middle of paper… the “Autobiography of the Imprisoned Peon. He said, “… we had sold ourselves into slavery and what could we do about it? The whites had all the courts, all the guns, all the bloodhounds, all the railways, all the telegraph cables, all the newspapers, all the money and almost all the land, and we had only our ignorance, our poverty and our empty hands." (25) Keep in mind that this does not only apply to white people who oppress other races. This applies to all those in control and the people they discriminate against and the determination to make that vision a reality, those who do not meet expectations may be forced to pay simply because of who they are or their social status. Prison writing in 20th century America. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.