History of Mississippi
Oshkinskys Worse Than Slavery, and Anne Moody’s Coming of age in Mississippi proivide excellent examples of the hardships African Americans went through for their fight for civil rights.
Worse than slavery exemplifies the despair found in the almost forgotten era in black history. Written by Historian Oshlink, this texts acknowledges the time period known as reconstruction in the New South, where slavery was replaced with convict leasing and eventually the Parchman prison farm. Oshlink sets his book in Mississippi where he uses court records and blues lyrics of black prisoners to understand the harsh times of the Parchman farm. This farm was used to imprison blacks after they were emancipated. Court documents that Oshkinsky studied allows for readers to see when Mississippi had to get rid of slavery they used imprisonment instead. Crimes commited such as a black child stealing change resulted in being sent to the Parchman farm. This prison farm allowed for Mississippians to rent out black “criminials” to do slave labor for cotton plantations. Throughout his text readers such as myself are able to see how violent Mississippi was to African Americans. Southerners truly hated the “negro freeman” and would do almost anything in order to preserve a sense of slavery.
Anne Moody’s Coming Of Age In Mississippi also deals with the hard times of African Americans in the South. The story retells the life of Anne, an African American women growing up in the 20th century of rural Mississippi. Her loud mouth and independent nature is seen throughout the story and allows readers to understand racism during that time period. The story beings with her childhood where she is growing up in poverty and has to become a maid for white familes at the age of 10 to help support her family. Although during her childhood she does not see the effects of racisms until she enters highschool. There she is confronted with the horrors of racial codes as she finds out about Emmett Till’s
Worse than slavery exemplifies the despair found in the almost forgotten era in black history. Written by Historian Oshlink, this texts acknowledges the time period known as reconstruction in the New South, where slavery was replaced with convict leasing and eventually the Parchman prison farm. Oshlink sets his book in Mississippi where he uses court records and blues lyrics of black prisoners to understand the harsh times of the Parchman farm. This farm was used to imprison blacks after they were emancipated. Court documents that Oshkinsky studied allows for readers to see when Mississippi had to get rid of slavery they used imprisonment instead. Crimes commited such as a black child stealing change resulted in being sent to the Parchman farm. This prison farm allowed for Mississippians to rent out black “criminials” to do slave labor for cotton plantations. Throughout his text readers such as myself are able to see how violent Mississippi was to African Americans. Southerners truly hated the “negro freeman” and would do almost anything in order to preserve a sense of slavery.
Anne Moody’s Coming Of Age In Mississippi also deals with the hard times of African Americans in the South. The story retells the life of Anne, an African American women growing up in the 20th century of rural Mississippi. Her loud mouth and independent nature is seen throughout the story and allows readers to understand racism during that time period. The story beings with her childhood where she is growing up in poverty and has to become a maid for white familes at the age of 10 to help support her family. Although during her childhood she does not see the effects of racisms until she enters highschool. There she is confronted with the horrors of racial codes as she finds out about Emmett Till’s