Let The Circle Be Unbroken

Let the Circle be Unbroken

When TJ gets a trial, the Logan children are very happy because they think he will not be killed. Mama and Papa disagree because the jury will be entirely white. Mr. Jaminson does and excellent job defending TJ. He had experiments, such as putting a black stocking over his hand and showing it to Mrs. Barnett. He also had strong evidence that TJ did not commit the crime. At the end, TJ was found guilty, mostly because of the jury’s prejudice.

This part is a very crucial part of the novel because if TJ were not convicted, the Logan children would have not ridden up to strawberry and they would not have used the “white” bathrooms. This incident sets a sad tone for the rest of the novel. If TJ weren’t convicted, a majority of the rest of the book would deal with threats against TJ and how he deals with them. Maybe TJ would even get into more trouble with RW and Melvin.

When Dube organizes a union with Mr. Wheeler and John Moses, they all came to Mr. Logan for help. They asked him if he could sign up all of the people in his area. Their goal is to get plantation workers 50 cents from sunup to sundown. It looked like Mr. Logan would go along with it until Mr. Wheeler blurts out that it would be a white and black union. Mr. Logan shows some resistance and never really lets Mr. Wheeler know if he would do it or not.

This turning point is important because later on in the book the Logans go to a meeting about the union. After that, the night men ambush the next meeting (Logans don’t attend). Dube, who was at the meeting, comes knocking on the Logans door asking for help. If this event would have not taken place, the second union meeting would have not gotten ambushed and all of those people wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Dube wouldn’t have knocked on the Logans door asking for help. The meeting could have been a success and the plantation workers (a.k.a. sharecroppers) would get 50 cents a day for work.

My opinion on this event is why even have meetings. The book did a very poor job explaining what Mr. Wheeler and John Moses talked about. In reality, would your pay get boosted from 4 cents a day to 50 cents a day especially in time of depression?