"The Lords of the Land decreed that we must be distributed upon the plantations so that no two of us who spoke a common tongue would be thrown together, lest we plot rebellion. So they shackled one slave to another slave of an alien tribe. Our eyes would look wistfully into the face of a fellow-victim of slavery, but we could say no word to him. Though we could hear, we were deaf; though we could speak, we were dumb!"
Wright's prose is accompanied by many pictures that illustrate the realistic nature of his words. What comes to my eyes first when seeing those pictures is the wrinkled and worn hands of the sharecroppers and other eldery who most likely have spent their lives working on the land. This quote puts into perspective how isolated many of the slaves must of felt being paired with someone that shared their same plight and struggles but had no way of communicating about it until a new way of communication was developed. The last line of the quote is quite poetic as it tells how even the basic liberties of speech and hearing were useless in their situation. I thought Wright's prose was interesting and gave vivid detail into many of the hardships the slaves and sharecroppers endured. I too thought that Wright highlighted well the strifes faced without assigning propaganda as he moved from event to event.
Discussion Question- Of the pictures illustrated which stands out to you the most as a reader?
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