Divorce Research Paper - 3268 Words

Divorce Crystal Perez Divorce is a big scary word for many. To some, it is a word that represents failure and a reason for them to raise the white flag in defeat. Trials and tribulations seemed to take their toll and cause reason for a significant change in lifestyle, routines, and marital status. To others, divorce is a reason to escape from a difficult and harmful relationship. Divorce is the final straw and the symbol of courage to leave when they had had enough. For whatever the reason, divorce has become extremely prevalent not just in the United States, but across the Earth. It is also a large reason for debate. Many feel as though divorce is looked at as a â€Å"get out of jail free card† and that†¦show more content†¦Whatever the case, women were allowed to be choosier in who they married, causing a lull in the divorce rate. Maybe women were realizing that they did not need marriage to feel fulfilled. Or maybe for the lucky ones, they really could have it all; maintain corporate ex ecutive status†¦and find and keep love. Although the divorce rate in the United States has kept steady for the past 15 years, the rates are still considerably high. Current divorce rates state that almost one out of two marriages end in divorce. This number is without considering that half of all adults do not get divorced. In fact, a large number of people never marry or many marry multiple times. (Berger 2009) This brings up a great point as to why divorce rates are so high. We all know the tragic stories of those who have married multiple times on their desperate hunt to find happiness and true love. It evokes the question; while women and men can be wildly successful, why are they always looking for the fairytale? Why do we insist that somewhere, out there, our knight in shining armor will canter down the beaten path into our front yard and ask to be ours? Why do men proclaim that they will only settle down for the right woman; who coincidentally mirrors the only perfect wo man in their life†¦ their mom? We have been told sinceShow MoreRelatedResearch Paper How Divorce Affects or Children2073 Words   |  9 PagesResearch Paper: The Impact of Divorce on Children Jimmy Trolinger Liberty University On-Line Author Note Jimmy Trolinger, Psychology Student at Liberty University Prepared for Professor Jennifer Kennedy Psychology 210 D-12 Liberty University Abstract Divorce causes many problems for children and has many implications. Psychological implications include mental health problems and behavioral problems. Social roles are turned inside out and upside down. Children are often pulled in manyRead MoreThe Impact Of Divorce On Children S Emotion844 Words   |  4 Pages Running head: THE IMPACT OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN’S EMOTION The Impact of Divorce on Children Emotion Lateefah Abiri Houston community College (Alief) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research paper is made actualized through the support from everyone that include my family, teacher, classmates, HCCS-Alief Library staff and the hardworking men and women that devote their time to changing mankind through research and dissemination. Especially, please allow me to dedicateRead MoreDivorce : The Impact It Has On The Family1541 Words   |  7 PagesDivorce: The Impact It Has On the Family Introduction Marriage is a sacred communion between two people that vows to love each other until the end of time. No one gets married with the intent to divorce. Unfortunately, marriages are challenged with acts of infidelity, change in family incomes, and many other factors. These factors most likely lead to divorce. Divorce perpetually deteriorates the family and the relationship between children and parents. It can lead to negative effects of the familyRead MoreFor This Assignment, I Chose To Read And Reviewed Four1567 Words   |  7 PagesFor this assignment, I chose to read and reviewed four research articles that talk about the effects of divorce on children. Each of them discussed about whether the differences in the level of parental marital conflict could leave any impacts on the well-being of the children. Besides, all of these papers compare between the high-conflict and low-conflict families. They compare and contrast the well being of the children of divorce when they reach youn g adults and adulthood stage. All of these articlesRead MoreThe Effects Of Divorce On Children And The Association With Children s Self Esteem By Kim Bastaits1466 Words   |  6 Pages134 Schweingruber 9/30/14 Library Research Project I’m sure everyone has heard that roughly fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. I’m not entirely sure that static is still true, but still a lot of marriages do end in divorce. I am a child of divorce. My parents got divorced when I was around five years old. I’m always very interested in the affects divorce has on children, since I am one. Our society has changed to mostly accept divorce. I think divorce is related to the course material becauseRead MoreDivorce And Its Definition Of Marriage978 Words   |  4 PagesMarriage is ending often in divorce due to marrying young, the expectations placed on it, living together before marriage, and women’s independence. In this research paper, I will be discussing divorce and its definition. I will also discuss what sociologist theorists are saying regarding divorce in the research that I’ve read and reviewed. It is interesting to see how the reason for divorce continues to change but as society s ees fit with their definition of marriage, divorce, and even what is consideredRead MoreNegative Effects Of Divorce On Children1072 Words   |  5 PagesWhat are the Negative Effects of Divorce on Children When I was five years old I was forced to make a choice. This was a choice many children should not have to make and can never really be prepared for. My parents were getting a divorce and they decided it was in my best interests to give me the option to live with whomever I chose. It was a burden that to this day affects my relationship with one of my parents. Ultimately, I chose to live with my mother and from then on, my father would barelyRead MoreThe Effects Of Divorce On Children And Children1548 Words   |  7 Pages The Effects of Divorce on Children Mikele J. King Medaille College Abstract The current divorce rate suggests that one out of every two marriages will end in divorce. This paper is a critical literature review that explores the hypothesis that divorce has detrimental effects on children. Six different risks have been suggested to cause the differences in an increased need for help between divorced family children and two-parent family children: parental loss, economic loss, more lifeRead MoreSubstance Abuse As A Predictor Of Divorce1368 Words   |  6 PagesAbstract This literature review focuses on substance abuse and how it correlates with divorce; specifically within the context of concordant and discordant substance abuse in married couples. It aims to assess how substance abuse impacts marital satisfaction, and if indeed it has an effect on subsequent separation and divorce. This paper will review previous studies that concluded that alcohol is a predictor of divorce, as well as those that have concluded that it is not necessarily the substance abuseRead MoreSeparation Of A Child s Parents1287 Words   |  6 PagesEach year, over one million American children suffer from divorce in their families (Fagan). Divorce causes lasting damage to all involved, but especially children. Many people assumed that what is good for the mother and father is good for the child. But now, tremendous amounts of research have been done on divorce and children. All the research points out one hard truth and that is that kids suffer when mom and dad get a divorc e (focus on the family). Separation of a child’s parents puts the child

A Christmas Carol Analysis - 707 Words

A Christmas Carol Discussion By Kalana A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a story about a man who is stingy, rude and solitary. His name is Scrooge, and he gets taught many lessons. Scrooge comes out a changed man who is optimistic and happy. The lessons he gets taught is not only for him but also for Dickens readers. Throughout this text, there many situations where usual readers can relate to. In other parts of the text, there are moments that are rare and have a massive impact on Scrooges life. A Christmas Carols messages are for the readers because Scrooge is a metaphor for the wrongdoings in life, these lessons could happen to anyone and because the book was created so that no one should go through the experiences that†¦show more content†¦Scrooge was greatly changed by the events he saw, but everyone can change if they are capable enough. For instance, Scrooge showed a change we could all do when he said â€Å"I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man 2.† This indicated that he is a jollies man, and has changed drastically. These relations show that A Christmas Carol gives lessons for both readers and protagonists. The final statement is that A Christmas Carol is a book about learning from mistakes, and so that readers dont make the same mistakes. Scrooge learnt from mistakes the hard way, and at the end, he acted like a normal person. However, if readers notice that if they are happy and joyful in the first place, they wont have to experience the hurtful lessons that Scrooge had to go through. People who are optimistic usually have a happier life because they take the most out of everything. If Scrooge had been optimistic from the start, he wouldnt have had to go through the experiences he did. Scrooge was seeing that being happy was changing him and the people around him when he was thinking â€Å"He had never dreamed that any walk—that anything—could give him so much happiness. 3† This reason shows that A Christmas Carol gives lessons to readers and Scrooge. In conclusion, the lessons learnt by Scrooge in A Christmas Carol are undoubtedly not only for the protagonists but also for Dickens readers. This is because Scrooge is aShow MoreRelatedA Christmas Carol Analysis1141 Words   |  5 Pageswrote A Christmas Carol in 1843. This short novel has a Christmas theme and has been popular since it was first published. This moral story is about an old man called Scrooge who hates Christmas and is mean to everyone, but he is transformed. The lessons he learns are as much for the reader to benefit from as Scrooge. His transformation is the key event in the novel and the reader clearly sees Scrooge before and after his experiences. This process will now be explored more fully. A Christmas CarolRead MoreA Christmas Carol Analysis1036 Words   |  5 PagesCharles Dickens’s main character in â€Å"A Christmas Carol†. This play is about the story of a man, Ebenezer Scrooge, who was greedy, loved money, and had a heart that was hardened toward Christmas. Charles Dickens wrote this story to help expose the suffering of the poor and to convince readers that conditions need to be corrected. Through the visitations of three spirits, Scrooge learned why he had become greedy, how much he had missed out on by avoiding Christmas, and that he was capable of becomingRead MoreA Christmas Carol Analysis1409 Words   |  6 PagesThe novels A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte display a strong parallel in the ways in which they use their different styles of narration in the story to reveal the true inner-feelings of characters. In A Christmas Carol, the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is taught many valuable lessons through the testament of three different spirits, each working to bring out the true emotions of this man. Likewise, in Wuthering Heights, the main character, Mr. LockwoodRead MoreChristmas Carol Analysis679 Words   |  3 PagesCesar Granda E.G 121 When reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens you realize that Scrooge’s childhood has a huge impact on his adult life, his adult self is a mirror image of his child self, both in his emotions and relationships. This becomes apparent when the ghost of Christmas past appears and takes Scrooge on a journey back into his childhood days. His childhood really molds Scrooge into the person he becomes later in life. Scrooge was a lonely and withdrawn child becauseRead MoreA Christmas Carol Analysis1123 Words   |  5 PagesWhile Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol, gives an account of one wealthy man’s insight towards the lower class, Steven Johnson’s work, Ghost Map, explores the hardships endured by the lower class in Soho, a poor area of London in the 1850’s. The two pieces of literature work in conjunction to examine how the quality of life during these times was affected by the disparity between classes. Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist in A Christmas Carol, demonstrates early in the novel how the richRead MoreThe Christmas Carol Character Analysis1006 Words   |  5 Pages During the book â€Å"The Christmas Carol† by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge changed very much, during the beginning of the book he was a cold hearted person but by the end of the book he was a jolly old man. The Christmas Carol started off with Scrooge at his busin ess partner, Marley, funeral. It said that: â€Å"And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.† ScroogeRead MoreAnalysis Of A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens1395 Words   |  6 PagesMore than Just a Novel for the Christmas Season Christmas, the most joyous season of the year for many Christians. Yet, in the early Victorian era many industry and business leaders started to emerge as people who lacked the spirit of giving of kindness, particularly around Christmas. Charles Dickens, in eighteen forty-three penned a novel that to this day is one of the most beloved books of the Christmas season. Many view the book only as a seasonal novel to read as a young child or even an adultRead More Analysis of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Essays3690 Words   |  15 PagesAnalysis of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol is a novel written by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) during the Victorian age, an era that took its name from Queen Victoria, England titular ruler from 1819-1901. Under Queen Victoria’s rule, London reigned the worlds dominate city country and the country’s incomparable center of commerce, culture and government. At this time London’s industrial age contributed to a large share of the manpower and capital that brought theRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Scrooge In A Christmas Carol1524 Words   |  7 PagesDicken’s A Christmas Carol is a stubborn character that insists on his lone, grumpy life. His outlook on life had been skewed ever since his beautiful fiancà © Belle left him after she saw his love of money and wealth only growing. Scrooge lost the love of his life to greed yet he still holds tightly to it. Although many in his life have extended a warm hand to show him love and kindness, he has rejected it coldly. As Scrooge’s narcissistic and selfish attitude only grow with time, three Christmas ghostsRead MoreAnalysis Of Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, And A Tale Of Two Cities2379 Words   |  10 Pagesunknowingly sparked the social changes in nineteenth century London by exposing the harsh conditions of the lower class through the life of an innocent child. Charles Dickens, born February 7, 1812, wrote many classic novels including Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens grew up in a lower class family, because of that his father, John Dickens, was arrested and put in jail for debt when Charles was twelve years old. Soon after this, Dickens had to stop school and go into work

Text and Traditions Melancholy and Self Destruction

Question: Discuss about theText and Traditions for Melancholy and Self Destruction. Answer: Introduction Goethe and Wordsworth have produced various instrumental documents of romanticism. The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Goethe and The Prelude, by Wordsworth, are a great example. Goethes Sorrows of Young Werther sets a fresh standard and new sentiment of mood and portrays a fashionable shift of world-weariness, melancholy, and self-destruction. Wordsworth, on the other hand, used a style that was naturalistic, which is a feature of romanticism. In both Goethes The Sorrows of Young Werther and WordsWorths The Prelude, nature appears to be a key characteristic in the romantic self. To begin with The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe uses nature in two ways. First as an entryway of outside splendour and a tribute to excellence on the universe lying in each scenery and the plenty originality from the maker of all those exquisite images. This usage of nature is seen in the initial parts of the novel whereby Young Werther is jovial and trying to perceive nature as a fine art and he fiddles with painting and poetry. In fact, Werther comments at a point (Goethe, 2016) Would we be able to never appreciate and enjoy nature without having choice to art (p. 34)? Secondly, Goethe uses nature to depict the state and fitness of Werther as he descends the stairs of unhappiness. Even though nature is serving as a background to the anguish and misery of Werther, Goethe demonstrates further that we make an impression of nature, as well as the environment, to reflect our hearts state. Werther says that (2016) he has never understood nature better or has never felt happier even to the very smallest blade and tem of grass (p. 52). Werther is melancholic in a similar scene where he showed utter delight when with Charlotte and exclaims the reason he was ecstatic back then, and now that euphoria appears to be miserably haunting as the wonderful face of beloved Charlotte. Nature is exemplarily used as a backdrop of the broken heart of Werther and creates an establishment for the unanswered love and yearning. Looking at Wordsworths work, The Prelude, without mentioning nature none of his discussions would be complete. In Wordsworths poetry, nature and its association with mankind appear in vast, often being the focus of the poem and has turned out to be the foundation of romance primarily due to him. To more than the softness of infants among fretful dwellings of human kind, nature breathes among the groves and hills bringing knowledge, calmness and a dim earnest (278). He views nature as a sort of religion where he lays his ultimate faith. Nature fills two key roles in Wordsworths poetry. First, nature often makes him melancholic, despite the fact that it has an intense beauty and tranquillity. The reason is that, even though he relishes nature as much, he worries about others, especially those who live in cities totally separated from nature. How they can revive their spirits, its a wonder to Wordsworth. Secondly, nature makes Wordsworth hopeful for the later future. He knows that from past experience, investing time and spending it on nature, it is a favoured gift to his future self, for later, when hes all alone, exhausted and unfulfilled in the hectic, filthy city. He will manage to think back on the Daffodils field he once spent time in and be contented once more. Nature has the ultimate decent impact and influence on the mind of humans, all through Wordsworths work. All appearances of the common world that is from the least complex flower to the highest mountain evoke noble thoughts and passion from the people who watch these manifestations. With life and nature purification occurs in the elements of feeling and thought and the sanctification by such discipline (410). Wordsworth emphasizes on many accounts, how significant nature is to the development of a person both intellectually and spiritually. A sound relationship with nature, assists individuals interface with the social and spiritual world. Wordsworth clearly says in The Prelude, an affection for nature can lead to loving mankind (Wordsworth, 2016). Freedom for Werther is presented as something beyond the romantic confrontation with death. That is suicide brings about freedom from suffering and misery. Goethe shows how Werther views suicide as a definitive form of liberty, denoting it as the topmost level of resistance, which ought not to be related to cowardice or weakness. Freedom and nature in The Prelude were inseparable, and so were freedom and revolution. Nature is presented as an elemental and untamed force, just like revolution is where Wordsworth and the rest turned their backs on politics. This makes the idea of nature a fitting excuse to abandon social life entirely. Going back to nature acts as a synonym to freedom or rather escapism. In Wordsworth and Coleridges early poetry, nature comes across as a revolutionary force recognized with the fight for freedom. However, later on, after their revolutionary passions subsidized, they fell back on nature as their escapism or safe haven. Wordsworth also talks about the freedom to make a choice on what one wants to do, read and write about and further the solitude that accompanies that freedom. He states It is enough that he is free for several months yet to come that he may pledge himself to selected tasks (32-34). Additionally, he adds that he was taught to feel, maybe much more, the self-satisfactory power that comes with solitude (77-78). Later on, he questions if the quantity of freedom that he has employed in the selection of his interests was so much such that it resulted in the suffering of his effectiveness as a writer. He states that even though the independent study appeared to be like a course involving hardy disobedience, unkindness and proud rebellion towards kindred and friends, the phony virtue or rather cowardice presented deceitful approval to that over love. Freedom encouraged him to turn from the regulations, even of his own. No one knows what was preserved or gained, not even himself (27-41). Word sworth also questions whether a life of freedom will lead to enduring progress. He asks where is he who has had his whole life enlarged and preserved having this freedom or rather genuine liberty in himself? Is his progress bright and smooth (130-135)? Reason and emotion are also an important feature of the romantic self. The Sorrows of Young Werther covers on both emotion and reason and points out how when separate they can be an adversity. Werther realizes the character of a romantic who opts emotion to reason. He trusts that whatever happens in the heart outdoes whatever happens in the head. He relinquishes reason and surrenders emotion in the beginning. He is seen cheery and is adoring falling in love with Lotte, a married woman. He ought to have used reason but ignored it. Though he ignored reason, sooner or later it crept in, and Werther becomes depressed, a situation he never truly recuperates from. It is evident that his tremendous passions and insufferable emotions lead him to his self-destruction (Goethe, 2016). The letters that Werther writes to Wilhem his friend show the emotions that he had or felt. Various aspects of romanticism present themselves in Werthers character, which outlines him as a hopeless who cast-off th e voice of reason. He is that kind of romantic that writes meaningful poetic phrases in his love letters and lavish on individuals he feels genuine affection for. The most remarkable characteristic in Werther is his ability to infinitely and deeply love. He also enjoys the contexts of nature, feeling a deep connection with his environs believing it is the best type of emotions. He would rather have felt than thought and was more passionate than reasonable. He states Dear God! Did you make it that mens destiny be that they do not become happy without having to realize reason and afterward they lose it again (387-395)? This clearly describes how Werther felt. He was happier when he did not reason. Here a point is driven that individuals should have a balance of reason and emotion to prevent self-destruction. According to Wordsworth (2016), imagination as another name for reason in its most exalted mood, total strength, the clearest amplitude and insight of the mind (167-170). Memory enhances Wordsworths speakers to be able to conquer the cruelty of the present world. Recalling their childhood lives offers adults the opportunity to relink with the intense relationship and creative power they had with nature when they were children. The memories, in turn, enhance the adults to rebuild as close as possible the relationship they had with nature that is an antidote to despair, loneliness, and sadness. Remembering assists the poet to write by recalling passionate emotional encounters. This is because it is not possible to create poems at the moment a certain emotion is encountered. It has to be linked with other feelings and thoughts derived from the poets past through imagination and memory. Wordsworth complimented on the power of the human mind illustrating that utilizing ones memory and ima gination may assist one to overcome pain and difficulty. The minds transformative powers can be utilized by anyone irrespective of their background or class. It emphasizes uniqueness and individuality. The relationship of poetry and the mind according to Wordsworth was illustrated as emotion recollected in serenity where the mind transformed raw emotions of encounters into poetry that had the ability to give pleasure. Throughout his work, Wordsworth portrayed great support for the religious, artistic and political rights of people that included their power of the mind. Wordsworth also as Goethe seems to indicate that individuals should have a balance of reason and emotion. Bibliography Goethe, J. (2016). The Sorrows of Young Werther: In Texts and Traditions Tutorial Readings Spring. Sydney: Western Sydney University. Wordsworth, W. (2016). The Prelude: In Texts and Traditions Tutorial Readings Spring. Sweden: Western Sydney University.

Slavery by Another Name free essay sample

Students are taught in most schools that slavery ended with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. However after reading Douglas Blackmon’s Slavery by Another Name I am clearly convinced that slavery continued for many years afterward. It is shown throughout this book that slavery did not end until 1942, this is when the condition of what Blackmon refers to as neoslavery began. Neoslavery was practiced after the Emancipation Proclamation and until the beginning of World War II. Neoslavery was the practice of abducting African Americans, and/or imprisoning them based on exaggerated or false criminal charges, and forcing them into servitude long after the days of the Civil War. This practice was maintained mostly throughout Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The arbitrary use of ill defined â€Å"vagrancy† charges, such as obscene language in front of a female, changing jobs without the permission of a person’s former employer, and having no proof of having a job or work (which at the time was impossible for anyone because there was no use of pay stubs) were used to lock up millions of African-Americans who were compelled into or lived under the shadow of the Souths new forms of coerced labor. We will write a custom essay sample on Slavery by Another Name or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Under the laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands were detained, hit with high fines and charged with the costs of their arrests. With no means to pay such debts, prisoners were sold into coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroad construction crews, and plantations. The book begins by describing a typical family immediately after the Civil War and the first fruits of freedom. Throughout the book, we follow the life of one Green Cottenham as he tries to raise a family in the Deep South during the 1900’s. As the beginning of the 20th century, he is arrested in Columbiana, Alabama, outside the train depot in a completely spurious situation where initially its claimed that he broke one minor law, and then later its claimed that he broke a different minor law, and so finally he was brought before the county judge three days later. The judge, to settle the confusion, simply declares him guilty of yet another offense, of vagrancy. Hes fined $10 and then on top of that, hes charged a whole series of fees associated with his arrest: a fee to the sheriff, a fee to the deputy who actually arrested him, some of the costs of him being jailed for three days, and fees for the witnesses who testified against him, even though as far as I could tell there were no witnesses. All of these things added up to effectively about a years wages for an African American farm laborer at the time, and an amount that obviously somebody like Green Cottenham, an impoverished, largely illiterate African American man in 1908, could not have paid. So in order to pay those fines off as part of the system, he is leased to U. S. Steel Corporation, a company that still exists today, and forced to go to work in a coal mine on the outskirts of Alabama, with about a thousand other Black forced laborers. And those men lived under almost unspeakable conditions. They worked much of the time deep in the mines in standing water, which was the seepage, under the earth. They were forced to stay in that water and consume that water for lack of any other fresh water, even though it was putrid and polluted by their own waste. Any man who failed to extract at least eight tons of coal from the mine every day would be whipped at the end of the day, and if he repeatedly failed to get his quota of coal out, he would be whipped at the beginning of the day as well. The men entered the mine before daylight and exited the mine after sunset. They lived in an endless period of darkness under these horrifying circumstances. Due to the lack of medical attention, they were subject to waves of dysentery and tuberculosis and other illnesses, and it was ultimately one of those epidemics of disease, which caused Green Cottenham to die five months after he arrived at the jail, in August of 1908. Alabama was the place where the system lasted the longest in its most explicit form, and was the most evolved in terms of how every county government was involved and the enormity of the numbers of African American men who were leased by the state. And in the cases of Alabama, there were at least 100,000 African American men between the 1890s and the 1930s were leased or sold by the state of Alabama to coal mines, iron ore mines, sawmills, timber harvesting camps, cotton plantations, turpentine stills, all across the state. And so at least 200,000 African Americans, just in Alabama, were forced into the system, just in the most informal ways. And there are very well documented records of thousands of Black men who died nder these circumstances during that period of time. Stories of men like Jonathan Davis, who in the fall of 1901, left his cotton field trying to reach the home of his wifes parents, where she was being cared for and would soon die of an illness. He was trying to reach her before she died. And on his way to the town, which was 15 or 20 miles away where she was being taken care of, he was accosted on the road by a constable, and essentially is kidnapped from the roadway and sold to a white farmer a few days later for $45. This is something that is named in the book to dozens of people that happened to. Its clear some version of that sort of kidnapping happened to hundreds and hundreds of other African Americans. And again, all of that is just in Alabama, and there were versions of this going on in all of the southern states. So in reality, theres no doubt that hundreds of thousands of African Americans had these events occur to them, and millions of African Americans lived in a form of terror of this happening either to them or to their family members. At the end of the nineteenth century, there was this enormous brick-making concern on the outskirts of Atlanta. It was owned by one of the most prominent men in the city, James English . He was once the mayor of Atlanta in the 1880’s, a famous Confederate war veteran, and was politically the most powerful man in the city. By the beginning of the twentieth century, he probably was the wealthiest man in the Southern United States and one of the wealthiest men in America. He had many business concerns, but at the base of his wealth and the base of his enterprises was this brick-making factory, which was worked entirely with these forced laborers who had been acquired from jails and also simply purchased from men who had kidnapped black men from the roadways of the South, which became an incredibly common phenomenon as this new market for black labor developed. And the Chattahoochee brickyard, as it was called, was a place that generated millions and millions of bricks. Millions of these bricks were used to make the sidewalks and streets of Atlantas oldest neighborhoods, many of them still in use today. A string of witnesses told the legislative committee that prisoners at the plant were fed rotting and rancid food, housed in barracks rife with insects, driven with whips into the hottest and most-intolerable areas of the plant, and continually required to work at a constant run in the heat of the ovens. They didn’t receive medical care and because of this huge numbers of them died. A rare former convict who was white testified that after a black prisoner named Peter Harris said he couldnt work because of a grossly infected hand, the camp doctor carved off the affected skin tissue with a surgeons knife and then ordered him back to work. Instead, Mr. Harris, his hand mangled and bleeding, collapsed after the procedure. The camp’s boss ordered him dragged into the brickyard and whipped 25 times. If you aint dead, I will make you dead if you dont go to work, shouted a guard. Mr. Harris was carried to a cotton field. He died lying between the rows of cotton. On Sundays, white men came to the Chattahoochee brickyard to buy, sell, and trade black men as they had livestock and, a generation earlier, slaves on the block. They had them stood up in a row and walked around them and judged of them like you would a mule, testified one former guard at the camp. At the beginning of World War II, President Roosevelt was mobilizing the national war effort, one of the issues that was being discussed at the Cabinet level in Washington was what would be the issues that the enemies of America would raise to try to undercut morale in the United States? Immediately, one of President Roosevelt’s aides points out that particularly the Japanese would argue that America was not the country fighting for freedom and that the proof of that was the treatment of African Americans in the Deep South. Realizing what a vulnerability that was, he ordered that there be legislation against lynchings, making it a federal crime. The attorney general at this time, Francis Biddle, went back to his own office, asked the same questions of his immediate deputies, and one of his deputies says, lynching is a big issue, but there’s also another problem, here are places in the South where slaves are still being held, and it has been the policy of our department not to prosecute cases against those people. The attorney general is shocked initially, but then asks for a memo on how to prosecute such cases under laws which did exist. Four days later, on December 11, he distributes a memo to all U. S. attorneys essentially saying that this has come to his attention and instructing them that from that day forward they should prosecute these cases. In 1942, just a few months later, a family near Corpus Christi, Texas, a man and his adult daughter, are arrested and charged under the new policy of prosecuting these cases, and theyre trialed later in 1942, and convicted. In 1943, theyre sentenced to prison for having held a man named Alfred Irving as a slave for more than five years.