CRITIQUE – Slavery & Making of America vs. Rivoli’s “ The Travels of a T Shirt in a Global Economy”
CRITIQUE – Slavery & Making of America vs. Rivoli’s “ The Travels of a T Shirt in a Global Economy”
It certainly won’t be hard to distinguish between these two stories about slavery in America during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries because their views are vastly different.
In Rivoli’s book, The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy” (TT) she seems to take the side of the farmer/plantation owner. In that she seems to justify the need for slaves to keep the price of cotton down so that the plantations are more profitable. Instead of the farmers working their own land and/or paying day laborers to help during harvest (as had been done for years prior), they choose to adopt a way to get the cheapest help possible – with the help of Europeans of course. I guess the justified it since the Europeans were already doing it, it must be okay. It is unfathomable that anyone, including Rivoli, could think it was okay to buy and or sell human beings for any reason. Much less to treat any individual the way the slaves on cotton plantations were treated.
In TT, Rivoli also mentions that plantation owners provided “comfortable houses for their Negros”, and a “good fiddler” every weekend and good medical care. As if this made up for the grueling hours and conditions their slaves had to work and live in. They even put children to work under these conditions. She also mentions “the need for whipping,” like they had no choice but to do so. These people were treated like animals, not like the human beings that they were.
In the documentary “Slavery & Making of America” (SMA) they paint a completely different picture about life as a slave. Slaves were captured, torn from their families, abused, raped, overworked and even whipped. Not to mention bought and sold as if they belonged to anyone other than themselves to begin with. Most slaves, afraid of what might happen to them and/or their family members, lived with the abuse, as they had no other choice.
It certainly won’t be hard to distinguish between these two stories about slavery in America during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries because their views are vastly different.
In Rivoli’s book, The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy” (TT) she seems to take the side of the farmer/plantation owner. In that she seems to justify the need for slaves to keep the price of cotton down so that the plantations are more profitable. Instead of the farmers working their own land and/or paying day laborers to help during harvest (as had been done for years prior), they choose to adopt a way to get the cheapest help possible – with the help of Europeans of course. I guess the justified it since the Europeans were already doing it, it must be okay. It is unfathomable that anyone, including Rivoli, could think it was okay to buy and or sell human beings for any reason. Much less to treat any individual the way the slaves on cotton plantations were treated.
In TT, Rivoli also mentions that plantation owners provided “comfortable houses for their Negros”, and a “good fiddler” every weekend and good medical care. As if this made up for the grueling hours and conditions their slaves had to work and live in. They even put children to work under these conditions. She also mentions “the need for whipping,” like they had no choice but to do so. These people were treated like animals, not like the human beings that they were.
In the documentary “Slavery & Making of America” (SMA) they paint a completely different picture about life as a slave. Slaves were captured, torn from their families, abused, raped, overworked and even whipped. Not to mention bought and sold as if they belonged to anyone other than themselves to begin with. Most slaves, afraid of what might happen to them and/or their family members, lived with the abuse, as they had no other choice.