Pre-Industrial Families, Black Migrants
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1. The meaning of most of the documents in "Letters from Black Migrants" can be found in the social and political context of 1917 in the South and the North. The Reconstruction Era had proved a failure at giving most blacks a true chance at socioeconomic success. Instead, most were barely surviving. World War I brought the opportunity for better jobs and a better life in the industrial North, and this is what the letter-writers are seeking. The immediate meaning is that poor blacks are seeking that better life and fleeing the dangers and limitations of a still thoroughly racist South. Most of the letters are direct or indirect pleas or applications for work from Southern blacks to, apparently, the black Chicago newspaper's readers and/or editors. Some are well-written, and some are barely literate. All strive to give the best and most earnest and educated impression, just as one would do if applying in person for work. Some are adult writers and some are children. With respect to the question of whether or not the letters are truthful or not, we should expect that the writers are putting themselves and their work experience in the best light, while at the same time putting their life situation in the worst light. They are trying to impress the reader so that the reader is (1) impressed with the writer's work history and skills and abilities, and (2) sympathetic with the suffering of the writer and his or her family. Clearly, with so much at stake, we must expect that there wo
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. Laslett's interpretation, then, seems too limited and selective.
Laslett seems to let his biases in favor of seventeenth century family life and against twentieth century family life overwhelm him. The "family" life of the seventeenth century preindustrial era as portrayed by Laslett is an unrealistic and incomplete interpretation. It is not that it is inaccurate, but only that it gives the reader the false impression that such family life was largely a matter of such communality, coherence and cooperation. Laslett seems to be saying that family life in the seventeenth century was preferable to family life in our own era, an era of "alienation" and "instability." Laslett is simply too preoccupied with the communality of family life in the preindustrial age to see that he is ignoring most of the more unpleasant parts of life in that age. Also, he fails to note that the industrialization of society has brought our own era many benefits which the preindustrial era would have loved to enjoy.
The major generalization or primary thesis of Laslett's piece is that the conglomeration of individuals who lived and worked together in the preindustrial era in such enterprises as the bakery should be considered a "family."
A secondary an
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1598
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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