Analysis Of Slavery By Another Name

Slavery by Another Name is based on the time period after the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. This time period is often simplified or wrongly taught in schools. Children are taught from a very young age that the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery and that Black People were free to be Black in America afterwards. That is sadly not the truth because Black People were never truly freed at this time. They lived in fear of backlash from the White community, and they were subjected to physical, mental and emotion abuse, both socially and politically. Since slavery had been abolished, White People needed to find a new way to get labor out of Black People. Shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation is released, the Thirteenth Amendment
These two factors made it difficult for Blacks to combat the abuse of power by Whites. This would eventually lead to the convict leasing system and the mass incarnation of Black People. The convict leasing system is a way for companies and plantation owner to have workers by leasing Black Men and Black Women to work for them. In Slavery by Another Name, it is stated that some believed the convict leasing system is worse than slavery because, unlike slavery, convict leasing system is not an investment. Black people are rented, so renters felt no obligation to take care of them. Slavery owners literally own their slaves so they had to feed them, give them clothes, and give them shelter. They need the slaves, so they could not kill them and the slaves also had economic value, so it was best to take care of them (3). All the companies and plantation owners had to do was pay a renting fee once a month, which was about nine dollars. They could have these workers work in terrible, even life-threating and toxic
He specifically used Cottenham to talk about the experiences of the convict leasing system and black miners because Cottenham is supposed to represent the nameless and faceless people in the convict leasing system whose stories are not told. He is mentioned in the beginning and as the film goes on they speak more about him and how he relates to what is happening. Cottenham’s story is common to many other people because how he is arrested for vagrancy, and how he is given the choice of a fine and three months of hard labor or six month of hard labor with no fine. Since many people, like Cottenham, did not have the money to pay the fine, they just did hard labor. Many people would get lost in the system and captured by convict leasing. The idea of using Green Cottenham story is a very good one. Slavery by Another Name tries to portray the stories of all convicts through Cottenham, and while it is great to have a story told, it is difficult to follow his story. There are multiple narratives being told in the film, it is easy to forget which story is Cottenham’s. His story is mentioned throughout the film, but it would have been better if they started with Cottenham’s complete or almost complete story. The film watchers will be able to get a better feel for who Cottenham is and why his story is so important if the film would have started