Worked over 100 hours a week: in South Carolina, a restaurant manager made an African-American slave

A white-skinned cafe manager in South Carolina was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for enslaving a black worker with mental disabilities. The convict for five years forced the victim to work more than 100 hours a week for free, while he often beat him with a belt, writes USA Today with reference to the Department of Justice.

Фото: Depositphotos

On one occasion, Bobby Paul Edwards, manager of J & J Cafeteria in Conway, South Carolina, "dipped metal tongs into hot vegetable oil and burned the victim's neck" for not being able to quickly cook fried chicken.

Edwards “shouted at the unfortunate, resorting to racial insults to humiliate him,” the Department of Justice said at the time the sentence was announced.

In addition to the prison sentence, Edwards must pay employee John Christopher Smith more than $ 500 000 in damages, including $ 272 000 — a salary he never received.

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Smith’s hard life ended in 2014 when the waitress’s mother-in-law notified the authorities of the abuse.

“It’s even impossible to imagine that cases of forced labor continue in this country to this day,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division.

Bobby Paul Edwards of Conway pleaded guilty to one of the forced labor cases.

Photo: Horry County Sheriff`s Office

Prosecutors said Smith, who is said to have "mild cognitive impairment," started working as a dishwasher at J & J's Café in 1990 at the age of 12.

Smith, now in his late forties, eventually dropped out of school and got a full-time paid job in a cafe that belongs to a large Edwards family.

That all changed around 2009, when Edwards took over the management of the restaurant and simply stopped paying Smith, who had previously been given a small room at the back of the restaurant.

Within five years, according to court documents, Smith, who eventually became a cook, had to work more than 100 hours - from 6: 00 to 23: 00, from Monday to Saturday, and from 6: 00 to 14: 00 on Sunday - without days off and without payment.

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According to court documents, Edwards used "violence, threats, verbal abuse and threats to throw (Smith) in jail" to force him to continue working for J & J.

Sometimes Edwards hit Smith with a strap or kitchen items such as pots.

In 2015, after the arrest of Edwards, the victim said that he had been physically abused for many years.

“He beat me with straps and other objects,” Smith confirmed.

And now he wants Edwards to go to jail, while clarifying: “And I want to be there when he goes there.”

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