From Chains to Systems

From Chains to Systems The Children of Modesty is a work of historical, legal, and constitutional inquiry tracing the unbroken legacy of slavery into the present-day systems of incarceration, labor exploitation, and racialized economic deprivation.

Written by Edduard Prince, a 6x great-grandson of Modesty, Harriet Tubman's grandmother, an African woman kidnapped from Ghana as a teenager and enslaved in Maryland. This book examines how forced labor, denied wages, and state-sanctioned exploitation did not end with emancipation, but instead evolved through law, policy, and institutional practice.

Drawing on family history, constitutional analysis, and modern correctional labor systems such as Maryland Correctional Enterprises, the book challenges the notion that slavery is a closed chapter in American history. It argues that the Thirteenth Amendment labor exception, combined with economic incentives tied to incarceration, has perpetuated involuntary servitude under a new legal framework.

This is not a claim for reparations. It is an examination of unpaid labor, continuing constitutional injury, and the legal structures that allow historical injustice to persist into the present. From Chains to Systems invites readers to reconsider freedom, labor, and justice in America through both historical record and lived experience.