Black+Work+Ethic

WGR- In his essay, __The Black Work Ethic__, Eugene D. Genovese suggests that slaves in general preferred to work as a group instead of individually. He uses specific examples of certain types of work and slave responses to them. One example in particular, corn-shucking, produced very powerful assertions. Corn-shuckling was represented as one of the favorite jobs of the slaves because it involved most of the slaves, creating a social atmosphere even though it was hard work. It is a solid example because Genovese includes accounts from different slaves from different states. The accounts all refer to group corn-shuckling and later in the essay, accounts of slaves burning trees was used to support Genovese's conclusion because the work involved with the trees being burnt was individual work, which hints at the preference of group work, especially because the work with the burnt trees was particularly easy. Furthermore, records show that slaves helped other slaves to finish their work if they were behind, showing a strong sense of coherency. The slave population was so coherent that during cotton picking, a relatively group-oriented job, the slaves felt sad because they did not have to opportunity to work with slaves from other plantations that had been borrowed to complete a large job. This once again shows how slaves were like a family and some cases a community within a few plantations.

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