Peon

Peon (English /ˈpiːɒn/, from the Spanish peón Spanish pronunciation: [peˈon]) usually refers to a person subject to peonage: any form of wage labor, financial exploitation, coercive economic practice, or policy in which the victim or a laborer (peon) has little control over employment or economic conditions.

[citation needed] There are similar usages in contemporary cultures: However, the term has a historical basis and usage related to much more severe conditions of forced labor: The Spanish conquest of Mexico and Caribbean islands included peonage; the conquistadors forced natives to work for Spanish planters and mine operators.

[citation needed] The landowner would force the tenant farmer or sharecropper to buy seeds and tools from the land owner's store, which often had inflated prices.

Usually lacking the resources to pay the fine, the "vagrant" was sent to county labor or hired out under the convict lease program to a private employer.

[citation needed] Under such laws, local officials arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands of people and charged them with fines and court costs of their cases.

Government officials leased imprisoned blacks and whites to small town entrepreneurs, provincial farmers, and dozens of corporations looking for cheap labor.

Unlawful use of state law to subvert rights under the Federal Constitution was made punishable by fine or a year's imprisonment.

The holding of any person to service or labor under the system known as peonage is abolished and forever prohibited in the territory of New Mexico, or in any other territory or state of the United States; and all acts, laws, … made to establish, maintain, or enforce, directly or indirectly, the voluntary or involuntary service or labor of any persons as peons, in liquidation of any debt or obligation, or otherwise, are declared null and void.