Laura Wexler the author of “Fire in a Canebrake” gives a very detailed nonfictional narrative of an event which is proclaimed to be the last mass lynching in American history. Wexler shines some light on the part of American history that isn’t talked about as much, the Civil Rights era. The author captivates the thin line of racial tension as well as racial ignorance that can be felt throughout everyday life in most rural cities in the south. The book takes place in Monroe, Georgia, a rural city that is roughly forty miles east of Atlanta. The city of Monroe from what Wexler has written is no different than any other rural town in America in 1946.
For the most part the city of Monroe like most of the country was burdened with the racial divide …show more content…
She shows that even though Blacks were considered free in 1946 in the small town of Monroe, Georgia and most of the rural south they were working as slaves using the idea of “sharecropper” at a disguise. Wexler shows us an example of this when stating “Roger fled to the town of Mansfield, in the next county south, but Weldon Hester found him and forced him to return to the farm (10).” In another instance it was stated in Wexler text “No law governed the relationship between landlord and tenant, and even if one had, a black tenant’s word would have held little weight against his white landlord’s in court. That left black tenants vulnerable to a range of abuses (29).” Arguably these statement shows us that sharecropping was not a black person’s choice in the era most people like Roger Malcom were tied to the land they worked as well as the landlord not only just in debt but an curtain instances by force. No matter if the debt they owed was paid off they still were owned by the white man to an
For the most part the city of Monroe like most of the country was burdened with the racial divide …show more content…
She shows that even though Blacks were considered free in 1946 in the small town of Monroe, Georgia and most of the rural south they were working as slaves using the idea of “sharecropper” at a disguise. Wexler shows us an example of this when stating “Roger fled to the town of Mansfield, in the next county south, but Weldon Hester found him and forced him to return to the farm (10).” In another instance it was stated in Wexler text “No law governed the relationship between landlord and tenant, and even if one had, a black tenant’s word would have held little weight against his white landlord’s in court. That left black tenants vulnerable to a range of abuses (29).” Arguably these statement shows us that sharecropping was not a black person’s choice in the era most people like Roger Malcom were tied to the land they worked as well as the landlord not only just in debt but an curtain instances by force. No matter if the debt they owed was paid off they still were owned by the white man to an