King Cotton’s Slave

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 2nd Year

Issue

Issue No.

12

Date Released

1937

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1The mormon church (Salt Lake City)
2. 2Amateur Sleuths
3. 3King Cotton’s Slave

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 3

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: The No.12 issue of The March of Time contains a dramatic episode entitled "King Cotton’s Slaves" - a story of the bitter struggles between planters and sharecroppers (pickers) in the vast cotton fields of the Southern States of America. The appalling conditions in which these poverty-stricken labourers, black and white, live and work, are vividly described. Efforts of the New Deal Administration to alleviate matters by ordering every third row of new crops to be ploughed under, and offering Government compensation to the sharecroppers for the losses incurred, fail lamentably, for in more than 50 per cent, of the cases planters pocket the entire amount. Goaded beyond endurance, the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, urges its 25,000 members to take strike action. The planters retaliate by using terroristic methods to break the sharecroppers’ resistance. A pastor and woman social worker who come to investigate the alleged murder of a union member are butally flogged. This action arouses indignation throughout the United States. [Illegible]

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.2 No.8 of the US edition.

Keywords

Agriculture; Social conditions

Written sources

Fielding, Raymond. The March of Time 1935-1951 (New York, 1978)   p155.
The March of Time Promotional Material   Publicity Brochure, Used for synopsis

Credits:

Director

Jack Glenn

Production Co.

Time Inc.