Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson. History Book Report

PICKING COTTON BY JENNIFER THOMPSON
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When it comes to truly riveting and touching stories, the novel Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson and Ron Cotton ranks high up there among the best. This was a story about how wrong or poor judgment can seriously impact a person’s life, that of his family as well as simply everyone around them. It is also a narrative on the immense ability of human beings to be able to forgive even in the most painful of circumstances. Jennifer had Ron wrongly convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison. He appealed, failed, and even had a second judgment as two life sentences in prison. It is astounding that he forgave her later on, after being acquitted, after evidence confirmed his innocence. The historical framework of the novel however, brings out the underlying aspects that might even led to everything that happened.
The setting of all the events, was in the early 80s, when Jennifer was just a 22 year old student going on with her life. A knife-wielding assailant breaks into her house and brutally rapes her. The perpetrator was later found to be Poole. This was a time when blacks in the U.S. endured a lot of racial discrimination and persecution. The legal and political system didn’t do them any favors either, as basically the whole system was somehow racially flawed and hence biased. The choosing of Cotton by Jennifer, as her abuser, was just an example of what black people in the early days experienced. The systems at the time, favored the white people ...