Between the early and mid 1800’s, productivity in the cotton industry rose rapidly. Some credited this increase to slaveholders giving slaves rewards like money if they did worthy labor, but Baptist insists these statements are false. He attributed the significant increase of labor productivity to the beatings and whippings the slaves endured. He even goes as far as insisting that the slaves were “tortured” into working. He forces his readers to imagine the coercion and violence at the source of slavery. Many of the oral histories I read confirmed his claims but there were two in particular that stood out to me. In an interview told by Victoria McMillen, she recalled her grandmother telling her that her master would get angry and throw hot
