Analysis Of Thomas Benton 's ' Cotton Pickers '

Out of the four gospels, Mark 's gospel seems to be the one most focused on Jesus’s miracles. This paper will be looking at the purpose and meaning of these miracles. First, what is a miracle? A miracle is, “a special act of God that interrupts the natural course of events.” There are three different kinds of miracles that Jesus does: exorcisms, nature miracles, and healings. Just as there are three kinds of miracles, there seem to be three different purposes for His miracles. These are to attract people, to prove Jesus was the Messiah, and to show God’s characteristics.

The southern region of the United States was supportive of the institution of slavery for a variety of reasons. The biggest contributor to southern support of slavery was the dependance of southern economy on the cultivation of cotton, a valuable cash crop. Southern economy depended on the cultivation of cotton, and profitable cultivation of cotton depended on slave labor. Cotton was so valuable to southern economy that the crop was commonly referred to as "King Cotton". The importance of cotton and its dependance on slave labor can be portrayed by the image entitled "Harvesting Cotton" which portrays a typical southern plantation with a number of black slaves tending to cotton plants. The historical context of this image is the cotton boom, which was when cotton began to take off as a staple cash crop in the Unites States, especially in the south. This image helps to explain the role that slavery had in the success of cotton as a cash crop and the cotton boom. Slaves were used in cotton fields to tend to the cotton crops and to harvest cotton fibers. For this reason, the south remained dependent on and supportive

2. Pinedo 2 Slaves being transported to the South were usually ripped from their families and the surroundings they were familiar and comfortable with. These slaves then faced their new life at the plantation, a very different environment from what they were used to. They faced harder work, such as clearing trees and planting crops, than they had back in the ‘old Southern states’. The great demand for slaves on the plantations produced two very distinct types of slaves, rural and urban. Rural slaves, as you might have guessed worked on the plantations usually from dawn till dusk, driven by their overseer. Whereas urban slavery resulted from the lack of white laborers in the mining and lumber industries, because so many whites defected to the cotton industry in hopes of making a larger profit. As a result there was an increased demand for slaves in mills and in ships, so slaves that had learned specialized skills in the plantations, were in high demand in Southern cities. Slave owners hired out their slaves to work wherever their skills were required. This means that the owners left their slaves unsupervised all day, unlike the plantations where they were always under his watchful eye. Many of the slaves who worked in the cities cited them as incredibly different from working on the plantation. In the city a slave was almost a free man compared to the plantations, he got better food, clothes and privileges. Also the acts of cruelty

The Cotton Gin transformed the slaved based South completely in the early 1800’s; such an invention drew plantation owners away from agricultural crops and focused their attention on cotton. With such a rising interest in cotton, slaves were then in high demand to preform the laboring process of this cash crop. The South eventually became highly dependent on cotton, and in

I think what I found to be most interesting about the book was how the United States has dominated cotton production for so long. I am always interested in how rich people make money. It seems as if many people are wealthy because of cotton production. I just find how resourceful cotton growers have been historically to be very fascinating. I find it very interesting how cotton farmers have been able to make a profit at every turn and how they have turned even what at one time waste and byproduct into profit. Perhaps, their greatest achievement was to learn to even harvest the wind that at one point would destroy cotton farms into a source of profit.

The invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney was something that had far greater impact than anyone imagined that it would at the time. What seemed like just an engineering wonder at the time, quickly changed the face of the country. The Cotton Gin was an invention that was built for one specific purpose in mind, to create more efficiency in the fields. The faster that they could pick and process the cotton the more money they would make. What wasn’t taken into account was that with the increased production of that cotton they would still need physical labor to keep their business booming. At the time slavery was predominant in the country and plantation owners were looking to cut cost anywhere they could. Slavery became big business in the South because of this, even bigger than it already was. The cotton gin was the main driving force for the continuance of slavery in the South. The cotton gin also was a huge piece of the puzzle for the economy of the South, the quick expansion was great, but also came with its downfalls.

If you were to take a walk down a random road in the south in the early 1860’s, you might see plantations with fields of cotton or some other agricultural commodity being grown there. Furthermore, in those fields you would more than likely see African American slaves tending to the crops and performing assigned tasks. Before the civil war, the life of an American slave consisted of living day to day under these

One example would be the sugar cane that has been grown at the plantation for years, even before all of the black sharecroppers has been there themselves. There were multiple generations before the black sharecroppers had planted the sugarcane and it was mainly the only thing they planted. “There was cane on both sides” (Gaines 42) The sugarcane represents a time before the breaking point, when the African American community worked and thrived on the Baton’s land. In these former times, the sharecroppers would be beaten with stalks of sugarcane by Beau and they had never stood their ground. When the plantation families no longer started to plant the sugar cane and changed their crops, they also changed the way the blacks lived. Another huge symbol that changed the day to day lives of the African Americans was the tractor. Not only does the tractor show the present day of life on the plantation, but it shows how much the plantation has changed now that the Cajun farmers rule and pushed the sharecroppers out. Now the plantation is rugged and not taken care of as well as it used to be and sugar cane isn’t planted anymore. The Cajuns brought tractors with them, since the tractors are modern and more efficient. Since they now have tractors, the sharecroppers aren’t as useful as they used to be and no longer have the same use. They are considered

Romanticism is a style in literature that explores the romantic spirit or tendencies. John Steinbeck uses the romanticism archetype to portray how and why the poor, lower class families kept hope throughout the great depression. In the novel “Grapes of Wrath” the author, John steinbeck, describes the different types of land in the many and various chapters,“The Western land, nervous under the beginning change. The Western States, nervous as horses before a thunderstorm. The great owners, nervous, sensing a change, knowing nothing of the nature of the change.” (Steinback, 150). The author uses imagery to let the reader know how important land is for all families, as well as, the significance of the life changing experience each family will receive. Steinbeck uses imagery of the land

Art is a conveyor of whatever message or story a person wishes to share. As a society, we’ve become accustomed to the abundance of diverse messages and stories stemming from a multitude of cultures and people of varying backgrounds. However, the art scene has not always been this representative of all people. Contemporary artists such as Titus Kaphar, Kerry James Marshall, and Norman Rockwell have taken it upon themselves to proclaim the importance and presence of African Americans in history. Using purposeful art composition and meaningful symbolism, these artists address the imbalance power between African Americans and whites in regards to the lack of representation of African Americans in the history of art. By addressing this imbalance

Blacks were stereotyped as uneducated peasants with the limited intellectual capacity to perform only menial jobs such as share cropping. They were deprived of fundamental rights to independence, freedom, education, and the opportunity to pursue their desired lifestyles. Blacks were systematically ostracized politically, socially and economically. Seeking a better life, many blacks left the rural south for the northern cities that offered more educational and economic opportunities. Jobs were plentiful and the northern economy was booming. Factory owners recruited black workers from the south as a source of cheap labor. The majority of blacks settled in Harlem. It showcased black culture in all its splendor featuring many of the world's greatest entertainers, the most popular night spots, and the framework for the Civil Rights Movement. Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong attracted black and white audiences to the famed Cotton Club. Claude Mckay, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations. Langston Hughes captured this essence in a way that was unique from his contemporaries. Personally, I consider Hughes as one of the most gifted literary figures the world has ever

4. The part of the story that shocked me was when the Masked Man would drain all of his sons blood and kill him just to get his magic back! I know he’s evil but in one of the chapters when he said (in his brain) he could get back everything that was ever taken from him. I thought that he wanted his son back not to take his magic and kill him!!! 8.

As the Reconstruction hit the south, some white farmers were forced to adjust to new life as tenant farmers and sharecroppers (“Q&A”). As this social change occurred, white tenant farmers became the equals to recently freed black workers. While the end of the Civil War brought about new rights for blacks such as the right to be a citizen, the amendments did not end the plaguing racism in the south that manifested in the form of “black code laws” that socially restricted freedmen (“Reconstruction Era”). Faulkner represents this prevalent racism in Snopes’s choice of words when he describes how de Spain’s house is built on “nigger sweat,” which depicts belief that black people are only good for slave labor (Faulkner 512). Snopes echoes how the tenant farmers despised the evolving social structure and let the change affect them psychologically, causing them to resent blacks even more and by default also resent the rich whites that put them in that position.

1)The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck uses the story of the Joad family to portray the struggle of thousands of Dust Bowl farmers. Steinbeck tracks the Joad family with long chapters with short, depressing , and captures the westward movement of migrant farmers in the 1930s as they flee drought and industry.

The civil rights movement was a time of fighting, fright, and change, and arguably one of the most important times in history. Many strategies and events have been credited with advancing and affecting the civil rights movement. Dennis Chong argues that nonviolence was the most effective strategy used by activists in the civil rights movement (Chong 20). However, Kathleen Hall Jamieson argues that the civil rights movement “was catalyzed … by eloquent pictures” (Jamieson 57-58). With its power to impact and transform opinions, and change the trajectory of different events, visual art became a major factor in the civil rights movement. Norman Rockwell’s paintings worked to eliminate the pervasive racial stereotypes, changing the opinions of many Americans and the trajectory of the civil rights movement as a whole.