vagrancy

The Thirteenth Amendment's loophole was first exploited during the wake of the Civil War with “Black Codes” laws enabling the arrest of Black Americans for vague offenses like “vagrancy” and forcing them into involuntary servitude.

These were designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and to ensure cheap labor by broadly drawn vagrancy statutes that facilitated local authorities arresting freed people and subjecting them to involuntary labor.

The story takes place during a season of vagrancy in Jacqueline’s life, tracking her efforts to find shelter and enough food to keep from fainting.

Many were jailed for petty offenses like loitering and vagrancy.

Additionally, there were more examples of birds getting lost while migrating, a phenomenon known as migratory bird vagrancy.