Biography
Ethel Davis was one of two Black sharecroppers allegedly held as slaves by Tallahatchie landlord Joe Decker. Reporting his January 26, 1938 arraignment in Clarksdale federal court, the Socialist Call says Davis testified that he kept her in chains on his plantation. Decker defended the confinement by alleging the workers owed him money. This is individually documented coercive debt-peonage confinement, not lawful criminal imprisonment; the accusation is attributed to her testimony. The second victim is unnamed and no exact start, release or completed duration is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%204-5.pdf#page=10