![]() Uncle Willie’s disability adds a new dimension to his struggles. As Maya says earlier in the book, being an able-bodied Black man is already a struggle. ![]() As a Black crippled man, he has two identity markers that negatively impact his place in society. He must have tired of being crippled, as prisoners tire of penitentiary bars and the guilty tire of blame. Thus the workers “end the season as they started it,” poor and in debt. This is already a tall order, and is further complicated because the cotton workers receive only half (maybe less) of the profits accrued from picking. By the end of the picking season, the workers must have picked enough cotton to pay back the landowners, pay off their credit at the Store, and have enough remaining funds to see their family through the winter. The landowners provide the land, housing, tools, and seed as a loan. ![]() They don’t own the land they work on, but rather work it for white landowners. Like many Black descendants of former slaves, the Stamps’ cotton pickers are trapped in a vicious debt cycle. The “they” in this quote refers to the Black cotton pickers that shop in the Store. Without the money or credit necessary to sustain a family for three months. Then they would face another day of trying to earn enough for the whole year with the heavy knowledge that they were going to end the season as they started it.
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