Of the Black Belt

Habibat Oguntade
Ap English III
Period 2
Ms Brown
Of the Black Belt
After reading this chapter of the book, readers are able to get a better understanding of the conditions that made life terrible for the African Americans. The black belt is a region of southeastern Alabama, and it is mostly seen as the region in the American south characterized by a high percentage of African American. Even though it was a lot of them there, life wasn’t too good. They had to work constantly in order to provide for their families. Most people were uneducated, they lived with abject poverty, most of them just stay optimistic and with for the best. Du Bois really focuses on the most important part of this story, which has to do with how black people went through different forms of anguish , in order to survive in their environment.
There were no exemptions for people back then “Here sits a pretty blue eye quadroon, hiding her bare feet: she was married only last week and yonder in the field is her dark young husband hoeing to support her, at thirty cents a day without board” (Du Bois 171). Despite the fact that this couple just got married, they still had to till the soil and cultivation. Instead of thinking about honey moon, and spending their time alone, like every newlyweds usually. This is just to show that everyone was completely responsible for their own survival, and they didn’t have anyone to depend on. With all these difficulties, racial discrimination was still a big deal. “ the black folks say that only colored boys are sent to jail, and they not because they are guilty, but because the state needs criminals to eke out its income by their forced labor” (Du Bois 118). African American were naturally brought into the USA as a labor force. This stopped, because it has been noticed that land owners obtain increased income, as a result of increased labor. The more you put in the more you get back.
Another common thing about this chapter, is the description of African American employment. Most people where involved in farming. Cotton seemed to be was the most lucrative one. Several people were growing cotton. African Americans got wiser almost every day and they decided not to take insults and degradation from one. “Let a white man touch, and he dies: I don’t boast this,- but I mean it. I have seen them whip my father and my old mother in them cotton-rolls till the blood ran: by” (Du Bois 1-12). African Americas finally got up to disregard with disrespect. The way the whites treated them was miserable, and life just could go on like that. So African Americans had to own up to their responsibilities, and prove to the white that they are not just people they could say anything, and do anything to.