...People Behind Picking Cotton University of Kentucky Abstract Within the novel, Picking Cotton, the issue of misconceptions and false eye witness accounts comes into play. On a warm June night in 1984, Jennifer Thompson woke up to find a man in her room and was then forcefully raped by him. Throughout the incident, Jennifer continued to analyze the man raping her in hopes of guaranteeing he was brought to justice. She looked at his facial features and clothing and body type. When it came time to chose someone out of the lineup, she was 100% sure that she had chosen the correct perpetrator- Ronald Cotton. After Ronald is convicted and sent to jail, Jennifer begins to rebuild her life while Ronald’s life begins to fall apart. The story then switches to the point of view of Ronald, who explains his side of the story and emphasizes his innocence. It was not until DNA testing came around that Ronald was able to truly prove his innocence. The overlaying theme of this story is that Jennifer’s eyewitness account was so strong that a jury believed, without a doubt, that Ronald Cotton was the man responsible for the rape of Jennifer Thompson. This certainty was quickly dispelled by DNA testing and brings about the problem of misconceptions. Jennifer thoroughly believed that Ronald was her rapist and this proves how easily it is for people to misidentify features of different races. It also helps to disprove eye witness accounts (Thompson-Cannino & Cotton, 2009, p.1-287)...
Words: 1283 - Pages: 6
...Shelton Harris PSY-150-01 Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton With Erin Torneo St. Martin’s Press, 2009 Picking Cotton was an extremely well read. I also enjoyed the fact that it took place in North Carolina, particularly Burlington. The books other settings include various prisons in the North Carolina/Tennessee areas. The main idea of the book is based off of the events that happened around 3:00 a.m., one hot Sunday morning in July of 1984. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino (then just Jennifer Thompson), a Caucasian college student in the area, was awakened by an African-American in her apartment, and eventually taunted and raped. Although one might say that Jennifer is the main focus of the book, another might say the main focus is on another individual: Ronald Cotton; the man accused of the crimes against Jennifer Thompson and eventually another woman, by the name of Mary Reynolds, who, in my opinion, holds a generally insignificant role in the book. Jennifer Thompson was fairly short and blonde haired, I believe I read that she was nineteen at the time. She seemed like any other normal college female, it didn’t seem as though she was one to stand out in a crowd, her personality seemed polite, and she had “normal” relationships with friends, family and her boyfriend at the time: Paul, who was from Burlington, but was enrolled in school in Chapel Hill. She did some partying, occasionally, and dabbled in illegal drugs. However, in my opinion...
Words: 1108 - Pages: 5
...This case against Moreno and Mata caught my attention when I heard about it on the news, however, I must admit, I am dumb founded reading the details. I am not a fun of Law and Order, but, I give them credit for showing the true side of the convoluted justice system particularly when it comes to rape. It is disheartening to hear how rape is discussed in terms such as she was violated or taken advantage of; I think it is just a coy avoidance of the word rape. Based on what I have read through the pages, I am certain defense attorneys have to work hard to coach their clients to rehearse a story just like Moreno did and perform for the jury. Likewise, I am reeling from writing a paper about the miscarriage of justice using the Picking Cotton book. While this is the case, it is sickening to divulge all these terrible nuances embedded in the criminal justice system. Moreover, there need to be a complete overhaul of the rape culture that skews the perception of jurors and also its implications at the systemic level. In this case, victims are...
Words: 477 - Pages: 2
...Brooke Hickman Mr. Miller English 111-01 18th September 2016 Textual Analysis Essay Picking Cotton was a book full of hate, love, and forgiveness, all given by Jennifer and Ronald Cotton. The book begins with Jennifer a normal young adult, attending college. Jennifer had her life planned out, dating Paul, getting a degree and starting a family with Paul. She had no idea that one night in July would change her life forever. In the summer of 1984 Jennifer experienced being rapped at knife point by an African American man who had broken into her apartment. After that night Jennifer was on a mission to find her rapist and put him away for life. Not knowing anyone by the name Ronald Cotton, she picked him as her attacker. Ronald spent eleven years...
Words: 294 - Pages: 2
...As I began to read the book “Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption”, it surprised me by its personal storytelling and subjects. I had never read or heard about this book before, but now since I’ve finish reading, I can say that it is a story of a retelling of love, justice, hate, revenge and the power of forgiveness. In the book, the lives of two very different people, Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton are thrown into a confusion, leading to the prosecution of Ronald Cotton for the rape of Jennifer Thompson. The book further explains how the trial changed their lives forever and it also tells the story of both people from their own. In the following paragraphs, I would like to state my own opinions and personal responses about the book. I really enjoyed the story as it is told through a distinct pattern first person narration. I felt that I better connected with them in relating to their emotional dispute. Most readers like me have no experience in this particular type of trauma, so reading tone is crucial in understanding the moment. Without this particular writing style, it would be impossible to feel anything for the Ronald and Jennifer. These obstacles that Jennifer and Ronald...
Words: 550 - Pages: 3
...They are: 1) The opening of the story and an introduction of many of the major characters, including Luke, the narrator, his grandfather, and the "hill people" and Mexicans who will be picking cotton on their farm for the next two months. This also introduces a sub-plot line that will be important to the novel – Luke and his family's love of baseball. 2) Pappy's money woes and the hope the cotton will provide enough money to pay the workers and at least break even in costs. 3) The first conflict with the hill people, who camp in the front yard instead of the back, which sets the stage for further conflicts to come. 4) The introduction of Luke's father, Jesse Chandler, and his dream to own forty acres of land. 5) Introduces the Korean War, and Ricky, Jesse's brother who is fighting in Korea. This indicates the importance of the war to the family, and how close to home it is every night through the nightly news radio broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow. The radio broadcasts of news and their "beloved" Cardinal baseball team are their tenuous hold on the outside world, otherwise their world is insulated and far removed from the widespread prosperity sweeping America. 6) The picking in the cotton fields, the division between the Mexicans and the others, and the backbreaking labor of picking. 7) Introduces the budding relationship between Tally and Cowboy. 8) The hatred of the Spruills for the Chandlers, and the growing animosity between them and the others. 9) The murder...
Words: 334 - Pages: 2
...limitations. His coloring of the work experience must not cross the line from reality, but must present the factual workings of the day in such a way he avoids creating a fictitious environment to which the common workers cannot relate. The line that separates the two in thin and the essayist must use every weapon in his arsenal to create fact-based literature that entertains an intrigue the reader into feeling as though he has experienced the day for himself. This means by which this mix of truth and art is achieved in the successful presentation of the essay includes a variety of literary techniques. Maya Angelou, in her essay Cotton-Picking Time, painted four pictures for her readers in the short space of two and a half pages. First, she chose her vocabulary carefully in painting the picture of the cotton fields as the plant grew and the cotton bloomed. Her imagery of the plants turning “caterpillar green, then frosty white” touched the imagination of anyone who has witnessed the spring time in farm country. Whether it was watching the...
Words: 1110 - Pages: 5
...They are: 1) The opening of the story and an introduction of many of the major characters, including Luke, the narrator, his grandfather, and the "hill people" and Mexicans who will be picking cotton on their farm for the next two months. This also introduces a sub-plot line that will be important to the novel – Luke and his family's love of baseball. 2) Pappy's money woes and the hope the cotton will provide enough money to pay the workers and at least break even in costs. 3) The first conflict with the hill people, who camp in the front yard instead of the back, which sets the stage for further conflicts to come. 4) The introduction of Luke's father, Jesse Chandler, and his dream to own forty acres of land. 5) Introduces the Korean War, and Ricky, Jesse's brother who is fighting in Korea. This indicates the importance of the war to the family, and how close to home it is every night through the nightly news radio broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow. The radio broadcasts of news and their "beloved" Cardinal baseball team are their tenuous hold on the outside world, otherwise their world is insulated and far removed from the widespread prosperity sweeping America. 6) The picking in the cotton fields, the division between the Mexicans and the others, and the backbreaking labor of picking. 7) Introduces the budding relationship between Tally and Cowboy. 8) The hatred of the Spruills for the Chandlers, and the growing animosity between them and the others. 9) The murder...
Words: 330 - Pages: 2
...Topic: “What crops were important to the English Colonies in the south of North America? How did the cultivation of these crops shape the colonies?” Cotton, corn, and tobacco were the most vital to the success of farmers in the south, and helped format the South, and its people into the way it is now. Cotton and corn required immense amounts of labor to pick, tend, and harvest the crops. Also, tobacco is favored, and popular here in the south still today; all these ways crops helped shape the southern colonies in the United States of America. Typically it was slaves and a few lower class whites that provided the large amounts of labor that are needed to efficiently harvest corn and tobacco, and pick cotton, and remove the seeds from the cotton. Obviously, labor was the key ingredient to making the South successful, and making the people who live there tough, worn out, and hard to break. Cotton, at the time, was one of the main resources for clothing. The low bales produced put cotton on high demand, at high prices. Southerners cut costs by using cheap, inexpensive slave labor. “Ample evidence indicates that slaves worked well below their capabilities. In several instances in Mississippi, when cotton picking was carefully supervised in local experiments, slaves picked two or three times their normal output. The records of the Barrow plantation in Louisiana revealed that inefficiency and negligence were the cause of two-thirds of the punishments inflicted on slaves…”(1)...
Words: 842 - Pages: 4
...PICKING COTTON, COLLECTING PAINS (Socio-economic Condition of Cotton Picking Women in South Punjab) Researcher: Amjad Nazeer Oxfam GB, Islamabad (Pakistan) (October 24, 2012) 0 CONTENTS Executive Summary………………………………………………………….……….……...…2 The Euphoria of Agri-economy: ……………………………………………...….…………..7 Higher Yield - Between Myth and Reality: ..........................................................................................8 The Poison Business: ………………………………….……………………………………….9 Dealing in Pesticides: ….…………………………………………………………………......10 Socio-Economic Condition of Cotton Pickers: …………………………………………....11 Cotton Picking and Extended Agri-tasks: …………………………………….……..…….18 Bargaining Vulnerabilities: ………………………………………………………………….19 Clever Calculations to Rob off Picker’s Labour: ……………………..…….…………..…20 Picking Cotton in Poisonous Fields:…………………………………..…………..…..……23 Growers and Dealers attitude towards Pickers: …………………………..………..……..27 Labour Laws and Cotton Pickers: ……………………………………………………..……29 Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations: …………………..…….….………..…….29 End Notes and references: ………………………………………..……………….…………34 Bibliography: …………………………………………………….……………….………..…36 1 Executive Summary Approximately, seven million women are engaged in cotton picking across Pakistan. More or less, one third of them come from South Punjab. The incidence of poverty in rural South Punjab is estimated to be the highest after Baluchistan and parts of Sindh, with women’s condition...
Words: 12978 - Pages: 52
...advancements that took place in the 19th century. Consequently, there were both many positive and negative effects that occurred as a result of these changes. However, these developments affected the North and the South in great ways. The differences between the two eventually caused a good amount of tension because they were moving in completely different directions with culture, political views, and economies. As a consequence of poor farming conditions and a mass amount of immigrants coming into America, the Northern states developed into an economy based on industry and manufacturing. The North was mountainous with rocky soil and rapid rivers. It had long cold winters and mild summers which were not suitable for cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, sugar, rice, etc. They had to focus heavily on industrialization due to the resources they had available to them, such as iron and coal that was abundant. Using these resources as an energy source, the North constructed factories that produced textiles, furniture, tools, etc. Since factories were producing a mass amount of goods in a short amount of time, they exported their goods to the West and South. Trade was easier in the North, due to the amount of canals and railroads that connected major cities and towns to one another. To keep these factories running, they needed unskilled workers who would monitor the machines, work for low wages and lengthy hours in hazardous conditions. Many of these factories used woman and child labor, and...
Words: 1161 - Pages: 5
...Eli Whitney is the man for cotton. He was practicing law, but ended up in an agricultural economy. The south was not “the south” until about the 1800's. Planters lived in places like South Carolina. There was an “Alabama Fever” that persuaded many Carolinian people to move out west. During the 1800's white planters decided that moving west would be a beneficial option for them, so they did and they packed up their African American slaves also. Slaves were abundant to the planters, so work at plantations was not a problem. The only problem was how time consuming harvesting cotton would be which interfered with the wealth for the planters. Short staple cotton was the most time consuming and the most vigorous. Whitney thought of a solution and...
Words: 1475 - Pages: 6
...The Importance of the Cotton Gin In 1794 the machine was invented that would change the Industry and Agriculture world of the North and South by a man named Eli Whitney. Eli created the Cotton Gin, a machine that separated the seeds and thorns from the Cotton Fiber. This invention impacted the cotton world tremendously. In the South, the cotton gin had a negative effect.Though the cotton gin sped up the process more quickly, the demand for more cotton went up as well. That also means the demand of people to pick the cotton went up, that increased the slave population. Then in 1808 the American Slave Trade band was activated, but no one really listened to that slaves were still illegal traded. The Cotton was such a dependent crop which...
Words: 302 - Pages: 2
...The Impact of Cotton on Society Mariah S. Carroll Yazoo City High School / Botany Abstract The influence on cotton affected many people everyday lives. Due to where cotton was a everyday need from clothes to foot wear and essentials. Slaves lives were really the lives that were been affected the most. The production of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made the cotton business very profitable which increased the amount of slavery and ultimately caused a civil war. This paper will telling you about the History of cotton, how cotton and slavery affected the society, the impact cotton has the society today, how Africans Americans live styles were, and the hardships of picking cotton from slaves. This paper will be hitting some the important points of the growth and usage of cotton. The Impact of Cotton on Society Scientists in Mexico found pieces of fabric made from cotton that was almost 7,000 years old. In the Indus River Valley in Pakistan, cotton was being grown. By the 1450s, cotton was known throughout the world for all sorts of things. Cotton was important part in the American war, and was a major resource inn that particular time. A man in Massachusetts, Eli Whitney, secured a patent on the cotton gin in1793. By the 1850’s cotton was easily available at the corner store and sold by hundreds of different suppliers. As you would take out the time just to do it by hand you’re going to be going a long time due to the fact you only have two hands and you have to make...
Words: 324 - Pages: 2
...has been the undisputed leader in the global cotton industry in almost any way measurable and other countries, particularly poor ones, had little chance of catching up. Travels of T Short focuses on Cotton production, Chinese manufacturing and the “snowflake” market of used clothes. Unlike other industries, “consumer electronics that shifted from UK to US to Japan to Hong Kong to Taiwan and to China”, the United States still maintains dominance in cotton industry along with China. Using Porter’s “5” forces, industry analysis reveals that the following factors influenced the T-Shirt globalization that drove value chain from country to country. #1) Industrialization with creativity, entrepreneurship and cooperation. • 18th century witnessed the exploding productivity of English cotton that dramatically lowered the prices and affordability of cotton products. Industrialization with the emerging technology benefitted the industry to reduce cost of production, a series of technical improvements in both spinning and weaving of yarns made large-scale production possible. • British demand during industrialization spurred the American dominance in cotton – in 1971 US was producing 2M pound of cotton whereas Asiatic countries were producing 400M pounds, but in next 10 years US production increased by 25 times and meeting 70% of England’s demand. • Movement in value chain - US achieved dominance due to mechanization (picking of cotton etc.), concentrating capital, labor and entrepreneurial...
Words: 621 - Pages: 3
