According to Section one of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, December 6, 1865: 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.'
American history will forever be haunted by slavery. Blacks were subjected to the most cruel and horrendous treatment by their owners. Once slavery was abolished, Social injustice remained, and the benefits of the 13th Amendment took years, if not decades, to trickle down into everyday society.
As a result, many black females became maids. Although former slave owners were now considered employers, prejudice remained at the heart of life in the South. 'Employers' resorted to more indirect methods of discrimination towards their hired hands.
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1969, Kathryn Stockett grew up in these times. She explores discrimination in her hometown in her debut novel, The Help, the movie version of which hits Hong Kong cinemas next week. But the road to getting published was long and painful. She was rejected by more than 60 literary agents and was on the brink of giving up. That's when her childhood friend and fellow Jackson native Tate Taylor received the manuscript.
Taylor, an actor and director, said he was blown away. 'I was moved by the truth of the story, about these unlikely women coming together to create change in Mississippi in 1963,' he said. 'I called Kathryn and just said: 'This is fantastic. You cannot give up ... This will be published. If it doesn't, I'll make it into a movie.''
Luckily for Stockett, the book did get picked up, spending months on the New York Times bestseller list, so a film version was inevitable.