Twelve Million Black Voices Summary by Richard Wright

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Twelve Million Black Voices Summary by Richard Wright | Summary of the essay on Twelve Million Black Voices by Richard Wright

Twelve Million Black Voices Summary by Richard Wright – The word ‘Negro is not really a name nor a description but a psychological island, presented in its objective form by a unanimous decree and supports by popular national tradition which artificially and arbitrarily defines and regulates the lives of black people and the coming generations of black people.

Three hundred years of its existence has created rigid boundaries and dashed away all hopes from the black people.

The conduct of the whites are such as always reminds the black people that they are disrespectable, have no claim to pursue happiness in their own fashion, that their progress toward civilization constitutes an insult, that as inferiors there should be a check on their behavior, that they should labor under others and that they are owned by the whites who punish any show of manliness on the part of the blacks.

It may take scores of years for the blacks to assess the damage done by three hundred years of slavery, as their personalities have yet to get over the shock of so long a subjugation, benumbing their souls so that they cannot give utterance to their sufferings.

More than one half of the black population in USA are tillers of the soil of which three fourths are sharecroppers and day laborers.

The land tilled by the blacks is beautiful and full of varied colors, smells and sounds, be it in Spring, Summer or Winter, when the whole landscape with its changing and joyful prospects should have aroused the feeling of joy and wonder. But for the blacks its a hard cruel life with its dull endless days.

Among the idyllic surroundings given a hype by the media, the life led by the blacks are far from being charming, idyllic and romantic; they live under constant fear of the lords of the Land, bowing and grinning in submission, drudging all the day long and having most insecure wooden shacks for their living quarters.

The blacks are not free to obey the dictates of their impulse or inspiration. They have to bear in mind, before they can move, what is going on in the white man’s mind, which, however, is always changing.

In general there are three classes of men above the blacks; the Lords of the Land-operators of the plantations; the Bosses of the buildings-the owners of industry; and the vast number of white workers-their immediate competitors. The Lords of the Land controls the plantations and black workers and they in turn are lent money and obey the orders of the Bosses of the Buildings.

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, the so called emancipated blacks were stranded and bewildered, as two hundred and fifty years of slavery under whites, being the only relationship with the Western civilization, was all on a sudden snapped. Ironically, they had to turn to the same Lords of the Land, who held them as slaves, and beg for work, take their advice and enter into a new kind of bondage-Share Cropping.

The effect of the emancipation was varied in its manifestations. Some of the blacks drifted and gave way to whatever impulse that suggested itself, as long as they could work and eat. Many had no feelings left for family, home, community, race, church, or progress because of their life being confined within the narrow bounds of cotton fields for centuries together. Many of the blacks could not comprehend properly as to what constitutes “freedom” and dispersed at random in different parts of America.

In 1890 many white people predicted that blacks cannot survive in a competitive world, but in spite of that they found employment in the sawmills, the turpentine camps, the road jobs, though under in human conditions.

During the first decade of the twentieth century more than three- quarter millions left the plantations, more than a million roamed the states of South and the remainder drifted North.

The women had a better fate as they had supreme authority in the black families and worked in the ‘Big Houses of the Lords of the Land, where they learned manners, cooking, sewing and nursing. The men were usually separated from their family when they were sold and were forced to mate with whatever slave girls came their way. Women especially old women had certain privilege denied to the men- folk and as ‘Mammies’ became symbols of motherhood, repository of folklores, arbiters in domestic affairs, engaged in cash-paying jobs enabling them to become the head of black families.

Blacks have little say in economic and political matters as banks and big industries are owned by the whites. Except a few small time and small scale business such as barber shops, rooming houses, burial societies etc. they had to present themselves before the Lords of Land and ask to make a crop. .

The Lords of the Land gave them barren lands which yielded barely enough crop to last through the fall months and with the advent of spring they had to beg ‘advance’ credit.

From now onwards queen Cotton ruled the roost and had disastrous effect on the lives of the blacks as well s being self destructive since the fertility of the soil gradually diminished with each crop.

To plant vegetables for personal consumption was forbidden as cotton meant money and consequently power authority and prestige. They became involved in the bloody ritual of Queen Cotton.

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