Sugar Cane Alley

Alexandra Mitchell Dr. Lamont King GAFST 200 November 30, 2010 Sugar Cane Alley Jose understands at a green age that in nightclub to escape the indentured life of influenceing in a sugar tooshiee plantation like his ancestors before him, he must do just aboutthing different. In the classroom, Jose is a very bright student as seen through his peers and especially his professor who eventually helped Jose get into a prestigious school because of his donnish excellence. He assures his grand scram who is his sole provider and family that one day shell no keen-sighteder wee-wee to naturalize tirelessly in the sugar cane plantation.Jose dreams of pickings work in a more profitable and higher field and wherefore the plantation his community is chained to all cosmos done by attaining a high educational activity. Through the life of a plantation worker and the ones seen in Van Onselens obligate as a migration worker, slaveholding whitethorn declare been abolished, that their g o offdom is severely limited. At the arrest of the film, the plantation workers were singing a song and one line of its lyrics cl primeval summed up what is undeniable to end the forced financial providence many of the African Americans are trapped in, Money and justice are whats needed to end our suffering. In his bind titled, Social Control in the Compounds, Van Onselen does a good job portraying the hard lives of the Chibaro people working in a nearby tap plantation. These workers paralleled the lives of the ones working in the sugar cane plantation where they were both trapped and limited in their slackdom. They were oppressed under the proletarian labor rescue that make it difficult to move up in the labor field and many were financially indentured to their plantation backup day-by-day and paycheck-to-paycheck.This system made it exceedingly hard for the African Americans to move around and find better work somewhere else. There was almost total control over the lab or and the altogether opinion of this widespread control was to lengthen its cycle. There were laws passed, realizations to pay morose, and the inflation of food prices reservation it a widely controlled monopoly. One law called for labor contracts detail what was needed of the workers and many were paid by tokens or coupons that proved useless outside the plantation which in turn lengthened the workers time fagged at one location.Many Chibaro workers as cited in his article couldnt even pay off simple life necessities such as groceries, which forced them to have credit further lengthening their stay at each plantation. Many times the communities only had one grocery store, so for more control, the labor industry would blow up the prices making it around impossible for the people to be out of debt and even able to leave their workplace in search of more swelled work availabilities.For example, in the movie, a woman and her family couldnt afford her groceries so she asked the clerk to put it on their tab which would need to be paid off making their stay permanent until they were free from debt. But this proved impossible to clear debt, because a workers paycheck given by the tightly controlled economy never amounted to what a family needed to get by. Mr. Mdeouze acts as a mentor and he opens Joses eyes to the corrupt society and how it in some shipway mirrors the past.Although they are free from slavery, their freedom is limited by the labor-controlled economy making any further progress beyond the abolishment of slavery nearly impossible, we were free but our bellies were empty. Mr. Mdeouze does although make one factor clear to Jose and that is the distinct value of education the power it has. The wise old man cited the life of a free African American man working on the sugar cane plantation perfectly when mentoring young Jose, learning is second key that opens to our freedom. He is tralatitious in that he doesnt believe that hes a free man and reiterates that he wont return to Africa until hes dead and buried. Jose learns through Mr. Mdeouze that Africa has yet to return to its roots and white power is still perceived to be the dominant race in its every attempt to control all aspects of the African American life and still hold their power to utilize them for hard labor. Leopold is a young mulatto living amongst the plantation and is the son of the white landowner of the Sugar Cane plantation.When his father falls ills and is on his deathbed, he refuses to pass down his position to Leopold with the account of it being a white mans job and not one of a Mulatto. Leopold lived in his familys nice home with his African mother then denying the African roots in him by his familys societal stance. By not allowing Leopold to inherit the plantation as a legitimate landowner, this then denies in addition the white man roots in him.Therefore by being jilted by both sides of the race spectrum unsurprisingly lead to the demise of L eopold. He effect himself futureless in terms of his identity and in mounds of trouble as seen at the end of the movie. I believe Leopolds fate was inevitable because he was rejected and out casted in his own community and no longer had an adequate place in society. The tightly controlled labor economy in the early ordinal century made African Americans freedom severely limited.There were all but few ways to escape this corruptly controlled monetary system, but one way was through attaining a higher education as learned by young Jose. He quickly discovered that education can provide him with more work opportunities and a better life all together. In summary, as seen through the movie and read in the article by Van Onselen, there still seemed to remain obvious elements of slavery in the lives of plantation and mine African American workers even after slavery had been long abolished.Sugar Cane AlleyAlexandra Mitchell Dr. Lamont King GAFST 200 November 30, 2010 Sugar Cane Alley Jose understands at a young age that in order to escape the indentured life of working in a sugar cane plantation like his ancestors before him, he must do something different. In the classroom, Jose is a very bright student as seen through his peers and especially his professor who eventually helped Jose get into a prestigious school because of his academic excellence. He assures his grandmother who is his sole provider and family that one day shell no longer have to work tirelessly in the sugar cane plantation.Jose dreams of taking work in a more profitable and higher field then the plantation his community is chained to all being done by attaining a high education. Through the life of a plantation worker and the ones seen in Van Onselens article as a migration worker, slavery may have been abolished, but their freedom is severely limited. At the end of the film, the plantation workers were singing a song and one line of its lyrics clearly summed up what is needed to end the forced mo netary economy many of the African Americans are trapped in, Money and justice are whats needed to end our suffering. In his article titled, Social Control in the Compounds, Van Onselen does a good job portraying the hard lives of the Chibaro people working in a nearby mine plantation. These workers paralleled the lives of the ones working in the sugar cane plantation where they were both trapped and limited in their freedom. They were oppressed under the proletarian labor economy that made it difficult to move up in the labor field and many were financially indentured to their plantation living day-by-day and paycheck-to-paycheck.This system made it extremely hard for the African Americans to move around and find better work somewhere else. There was almost total control over the labor and the whole idea of this widespread control was to lengthen its cycle. There were laws passed, credits to pay off, and the inflation of food prices making it a widely controlled monopoly. One law c alled for labor contracts detailing what was needed of the workers and many were paid by tokens or coupons that proved useless outside the plantation which in turn lengthened the workers time spent at one location.Many Chibaro workers as cited in his article couldnt even pay off simple life necessities such as groceries, which forced them to have credit further lengthening their stay at each plantation. Many times the communities only had one grocery store, so for more control, the labor industry would inflate the prices making it nearly impossible for the people to be out of debt and even able to leave their workplace in search of more prominent work availabilities.For example, in the movie, a woman and her family couldnt afford her groceries so she asked the clerk to put it on their tab which would need to be paid off making their stay permanent until they were free from debt. But this proved impossible to clear debt, because a workers paycheck given by the tightly controlled econ omy never amounted to what a family needed to get by. Mr. Mdeouze acts as a mentor and he opens Joses eyes to the corrupt society and how it in some ways mirrors the past.Although they are free from slavery, their freedom is limited by the labor-controlled economy making any further progress beyond the abolishment of slavery nearly impossible, we were free but our bellies were empty. Mr. Mdeouze does although make one factor clear to Jose and that is the distinct value of education the power it has. The wise old man cited the life of a free African American man working on the sugar cane plantation perfectly when mentoring young Jose, learning is second key that opens to our freedom. He is traditional in that he doesnt believe that hes a free man and reiterates that he wont return to Africa until hes dead and buried. Jose learns through Mr. Mdeouze that Africa has yet to return to its roots and white power is still perceived to be the dominant race in its every attempt to control al l aspects of the African American life and still hold their power to utilize them for hard labor. Leopold is a young mulatto living amongst the plantation and is the son of the white landowner of the Sugar Cane plantation.When his father falls ills and is on his deathbed, he refuses to pass down his position to Leopold with the explanation of it being a white mans job and not one of a Mulatto. Leopold lived in his familys nice home with his African mother then denying the African roots in him by his familys societal stance. By not allowing Leopold to inherit the plantation as a legitimate landowner, this then denies also the white man roots in him.Therefore by being rejected by both sides of the race spectrum unsurprisingly lead to the demise of Leopold. He found himself hopeless in terms of his identity and in mounds of trouble as seen at the end of the movie. I believe Leopolds fate was inevitable because he was rejected and out casted in his own community and no longer had an ade quate place in society. The tightly controlled labor economy in the early twentieth century made African Americans freedom severely limited.There were all but few ways to escape this corruptly controlled monetary system, but one way was through attaining a higher education as learned by young Jose. He quickly discovered that education can provide him with more work opportunities and a better life all together. In summary, as seen through the movie and read in the article by Van Onselen, there still seemed to remain obvious elements of slavery in the lives of plantation and mine African American workers even after slavery had been long abolished.