cotton
From No Return
In 2015, media outlets were abuzz with the news of the discovery of a sunken slave ship near the coast of South Africa. The Portuguese slave ship Sao José Paquete de Africa (often shortened to Sao José) began its journey in 1794 from Mozambique, heading to the cotton and rice plantations of Brazil with a cargo of roughly 500 African captives. The ship never reached its destination—as it rounded the Cape of Good Hope, it was ripped apart by high winds and sank just off the coast. Although the crew survived, 212 of the slaves drowned.
Not All Okies Are White
The author of this book is currently a professor of English at the University of Arizona. Sixteen years ago, Geta J. LeSeur collected oral histories from Black cotton pickers in Arizona. These are a special population of migrant workers who formed their own community (not by choice, of course) the town of Randolph, Arizona from 1930 through 1960. Each chapter is named after the person speaking in the oral history interview. There are family photographs throughout the book. This work is an essential part of Arizona state history.
