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Fully explicate one of Francis Harpers poems. Include explanations of the Bury Me in a Free Land Francis Harper The ultimate theme of this poem was stated in the title. Francis Harper wanted to see slavery go away before her death. The haunting lines of text she so gracefully wrote expressed the horror involved in having to die a slave. This work starts right into her fear of dying a slave.
Her humble phrase in the first paragraph sets the stage. Make it among earths humblest graves, But not in a land where men are slaves. Right away Harper shows the equality of all men without emphasizing race when she says, But not in a land where MEN are slaves. This is one of the first signs of rebellion in poetry, and I can only imagine the courage it must have taken her as a black, female slave. Harpers powerful words invite us into the world of slavery from the eyes of a black woman. Dying in a world of slavery to Harper would be an eternal nightmare of the horrible lives lived by those who remain in slavery. 5.
Define dehumanization and trace its manifestation in the works of several writers. Dehuminization starts manifesting long before the slaves start using poetry to speak out. Jupiter Hammon states in his An address to Miss Phillis Wheatley that Slavery was worth being exposed to Christianity. This is an early manifestation of dehumanization because this is what the Slave owners used to pacify themselves as well as appease the minds of the hard laboring slaves. Slaves were now being born into slavery and this is what black Americans thought life was supposed be like. This is shown directly in George Hortons Slavery, but still a gloom hope of freedom and liberty kindled in the lives of these early poets.
Samuel Wards Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro shows strong dehumanization in the simple things of life such as, not knowing when he was born. Douglas spent his entire life trying to find out his birth date. In Frances Harpers The Slave Auction, dehumanization takes its toll. And mothers stood with streaming eyes, And saw their dearest children sold; While tyrants bartered them for gold. Children are being ripped from their parents and sold into slavery. What could be more dehumanizing to a child Or for a mother.
Frances Harper says it best with her theme of this passage, Death is Better. Phillis Wheatley couldnt focus as strong on the cruel and dehumanizing effects of slavery because she really didnt know much about it. She was purchased as a domestic servant by John Wheatley and accompanied them to Colonial America, a literary province of England. Her primary focus as a writer was on English Poetry, because there was no Afro-American society for her to reflect, nor was there an Afro-American audience for her to address. One of Wheatley's works, On Being Brought from Africa to America, shows that Blacks too can be educated and that in the Kingdom of Heaven, there will be no skin color.
Another domestic servant of a more Colonial America, he lived in rural Long Island, 1 where it is likely that his life was one of uneventful labor, reading and churchgoing. He also did not personally know enough about the unmoral events happening in slavery to write on it. His focus an American writer was on the moralization that slavery has brought Afro-Americans to Christianity. This is shown directly in his work, An address to Phillis Wheatley. In bringing thee from distant shore, Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Colonial America Afro American
