- WH(R)I(C)T(E)E, or, Threshing/White/Rice
Due to the omission of this crop in their European culture, English colonists who settled the rich North American land lacked the expertise required for the production of rice. Thus, the huge task of cultivating, processing, and packaging rice on South Carolina Plantations was commonly assigned to slaves.
From the lesson plan "The Role of African Slaves on South Carolina Rice Plantations," Teaching American History in South Carolina*
omission | settled the rich |
north | American |
land lacked | European culture |
what is required | is expertise |
enterprising | colonists |
cultivation | of the Golden Seede from Madagascar |
carolina | colonies of the Cape Fear region of America |
attorney general | call him Sir Robert Heath |
lords | proprietors of the proprietary of the proper property |
proper eaters | of poverties |
black water river | of Cape Fear spent with ye Indians turning up against ye wind |
because labor | was scarce in the region |
region was scarce | in the labor |
because the crop | by hand by |
because the climate | similar to where the slaves |
because the crop | was grown in the same |
payment of | rents to the British Proprietors |
so much depends on | ponds and hands glazed with rain water |
rising | forced fresh water |
by 1700 south carolina | was exporting 400,000 pounds of rice |
the end of slavery | caused serious problems for the U.S. rice industry |
the war caused | a serious lack of capital |
the end of war | A Serious Lack |
because the hands | a crop a |
because | pounds of |
because red | isn't always a wheelbarrow |
because | to eat upon |
fields | of |
white | thus the huge task |
[End Page 34]
Sun Yung Shin is the editor of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, the author of the poetry collections Unbearable Splendor; Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (all from Coffee House Press), a coeditor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, and the author of a bilingual illustrated book for children, Cooper's Lesson. She currently lives in Minneapolis.
Footnotes
* http://www.teachingushistory.org/lessons/TheRoleofAfricanSlavesonSouthCarolinaRicePlantations.html
Note: Other facts in this poem are taken from Steven Linscombe's "The History of U.S. Rice Production – Part 1" on the website of Louisiana State University AgCenter (http://www.lsuagcenter.com/portals/our_offices/research_stations/rice/features/publications/the-history-of-us-rice-production—part-1), the "Cape Fear River" Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CapeeFeareRiver), and "History of Rice" on the website of American Rice, Inc. (http://www.amrice.com/6-0.cfm). [End Page 35]