I came across this painting when researching slavery and the slave trade on FineArtAmerica.com, a database with hundreds and thousands of original paintings which I use often to help inspire myself. This painting, painted by Pam McCabe, is a more modern technique representing America’s older traditions of slavery. I was immediately drawn to it by the beautiful use of color that contrasts so well with the true sadness of their actions. These slaves are depicted in a pastel cotton field picking cotton, inevitably for a white slave holder who would be the only true beneficiary from their hard labor. Here workers are piling their mounds of cotton into baskets, that women typically trained themselves to carry on their heads as shown, and bags which usually are an addition to the baskets or used by younger children since they were able to drag them or hang them on their front or back side. The background illustrates the wagon in which all the cotton was loaded onto at the end of a hard day’s work, usually 10 to 12 hours worth. Slaves worked from sunrise to dark and were expected to be able to gather between 150 to 200 pounds of cotton during their daily work. The abundance of cotton shown in this pastel painting I feel is properly represented. Their long and covering clothing helps to protect them from the heat and burn of the sun. I found the attention to detail compelling to the realities of slavery and their daily lives that helped run the world of white men, yet, the colors are so light and hopeful; possibly representing hope for freedom.
This picture seems to be a very good representation of slave labor during that time period. I find it very interesting that America's number one cash crop at the time, was slave produced and picked by slaves. Picking cotton is not the easiest job in the world. It is very tedious work and it took long hours for these slaves to complete the task at hand. There are still people today who choose to hand pick there cotton. However, most of the bigger companies use machines to do the labor. I feel pity upon these slaves because picking cotton must have been one of the worst tasks to be assigned to. Not only is the work precise, they also had to work in extremely hot weather conditions. Not to mention the fact that the slave owners were most likely abusing them as well. Nevertheless, these slaves produced a booming industry in cotton, and they have little to show for the work that was done.
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