Читать книгу El Segundo - James Newton - Страница 7

The Slough

A large share cropping family (we had twelve) would receive 100 dollars

a month. Out of that 100, we had to buy groceries. We made most if not all of our clothing by hand but had to purchase the cloth. There was no extra money, we only had one pair of shoes for the year. They were bought before winter that had to last until they were totally worn. Most of us, particularly the boys went barefooted from spring time until the beginning of winter. We all were share croppers-servants-slaves living on the Deep South Slough.

The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic sub-regions in the Southern United States Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period. The Deep South was also commonly referred to as the Lower South or the Cotton States.

My uncle Vivian MCcrary, had held on to his job as a ginner. A Ginner worked the Cotton Gin which was a machine that quickly and easily separated cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are processed into clothing or other cotton goods, and any undamaged seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil and meal of the gin.

The cotton was harvested into bales of 1300 lbs, but the gin still had to separate the cotton from the seed, and take all of the trash, leaves or anything from the pure white cotton. Uncle Vivian McCrary was a professional ginner. He lived separate and free from the cotton share cropping community.

He lived at the first house on ravine that ran through our community called the Slough. The Slough is defined as a swampy and a stagnant area of water connected to a larger body of water such as a marsh, inlet, bayou, or backwater. Ironically, a Slough is also defined as a situation characterized by a lack of progress. Both were appropriate in describing our lives there in Mississippi.

Our Slough ravine of stinky nasty water ran for miles.. During the hot summer months, it was especially heinous. Every shack for miles that lived on either side of the Slough suffered. We suffered through our living conditions, and a share croppers-servants and slaves we suffered at the hands of the Big Man- Masters- Owners.

They would always beat you out of your earnings, cheating you out any and everything you were due. Heartlessly, they would steal your sole if you let them; but we had The Secret.

William Brian Newton the father on porch with little sister Peggy at age of 4.