The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.
The metaphor serves as a comparison between slavery and prison, and the small sight of the sky is the idea of free without freedom.
Emancipation was the key to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before the eyes of wearied Israelites.
This quote allows for an analogy which compares the freedom of slaves to that of the Israelites.
Heimpartedthisinformationwithsuchsolemnearnestness,andwithsuchanairofconfidentialmystery,thatIfeltsomewhatinterested
The man is likely to feel as though the slave has spiritual or mystical powers himself based on his persona and knowledge of the situation.
"Howdoyouknowitisbewitched?"Iasked.
The man questioning the slave's bewitching, is likely the man not trusting the man and probably trying to figure out his intentions.
Well,sur,youisastrangerterme,enIisastrangerteryou,enweisbofestrangersteroneanudder,but'fI'uzinyo'place,Iwouldn'buydisvimya'd."
I find the verbiage/ dialect to be confusing. not necessarily for the reader but possible for the white male looking at the property.
“Go down, Moses.” Mark its bars How like a mighty trumpet-call they stir The blood.
The statement the stir the blood is talking about the mental movement of the brain on the song Go down, Moses.
“Nobody knows de trouble I see”
Everyone has their own viewpoint and James's view is seen as negative and truthful to himself.
“Don't tell me about religion! What's religion to me? My wife is sold awayfrom me by a man who is one of the leading members of the very church towhich both she and I belong! Put my trust in the Lord! I have done so all mylife nearly, and of what use is it to me? My wife is sold from me just the sameas if I didn't
His seek for justice outshine the patriarchal feeling of church and religion over self. His rage will be the fuel in which drives him to seek his own justice.
The sight was enough to move the heart of anyone, and it so affected Franksthat he wished he had “never owned a Negro.
The fact that he felt remorse for his actions; illustrates the deepness of his concern and change,
“Then I must hereafter be disrespected by our own slaves! You know,Colonel, that I gave my word to Henry, her husband, your most worthyservant, that his wife should be here on his return
The fact that he thinks he isnt already disrespected. Shows his disconnect to the situation.
Mr. Colburn was very abusive, not only to the servants, but to his wife also, who was an excellent woman, and one from whom I never knew a servant to receive a harsh word;
This statement also brings up the idea of women rights. He doesn't shy away from putting them in the same sentence.
he was determined to try it.
In regards, to the determination of the handyman; it is seen that he is conformed by the stereotype of many power driven workers under slave owners.
The whole place wore a business-like aspect very unlike the neighboring farms.
This is one of the first times slavery is illustrated as a business atmosphere instead of the typical plantations.
Mr. Severe was rightly named: he was a cruel man. I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time; and this, too, in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother's release. He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity. Added to his cruelty, he was a profane swearer. It was enough to chill the blood and stiffen the hair of an ordinary man to hear him talk.
Mr Severe named ironically to his cruelty. His type of mistreatment becomes the face of what many people would see majority of the slave owners to be like. The fact that he enjoyed barbarity shows his psychotic tendencies.
to part children from their mothers at a very early age
Many slave owners viewed their slaves as animals and sometimes even lower, so when the children were taken from their mothers it shows the lack of care for development of the child.
Its generous zeaJ, its love of truth, Trampled by tyrants in the dust;
This quote shows the difference between the two poems. the first poem conveys a realistic outlook the slave's misteatment; however, the second poem provides a more optimistic poem.
Whitfield's contempo::~~ning to him an~ h:s at s~pped the poet's energies become another Edgar Allan p •es thought th b famrly only minimal support-oe,
When I read ahead, I remembered the pre-statement talking about the comparison to Edgar Allen Poe. The reason for this comparison is the gore of his writing and how it is implied to convey meaning.
Chained on your blooJ-bemoistened sod, Cringing beneath a lyrant's rod,
This illustration is powerful. By using the words chained, blood, tyrant's rod. It can be used to address the hardship of the slaves and humanize the situation.
every eye was fixed on this almost Amazon for1?3, ':hich st?0d nearly six feet high head erect, and eye piercing the upper air, hke one m a dream.
I think of King Saul. He was known for his leadership presence and Strong and tall build, which made people want to follow him.
Truth's most famous oration but also the crux of her challenge as a black woman to racial and sexual stereotypes that few had had the foresight to address so courageously.
As important as the racial barrier is, the fact that she is also breaking the sexual barrier should not be over looked in this section.
"I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence than this woman."
Confidence, my be the most over used word in these annotations because there is no other word to best describe her. She doesn't need to say much to get the point across.
the slave States talked strongly of emancipation. But they blew but one blast of the trumpet of freedom, and then laid it aside.
At the time many slave owners knew that if they allowed African Americans to be free; they would loss most of their cash flow, so they looked past the immoral aspect and continued to practice slavery.
Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, the first of our injured race were brought to the shores of America. They came not with glad spirits to select their homes in the New World. They came not with their own consent, to find an unmolested enjoyment of the blessings of this fruitful soil
They didn't have the luxuries of the white men, but they have fought to this point and will preserver, is his statement.
Your brethren of the North, East, and West
I find it quite intriguing that Garnet does not add the south to the mix.
I promised in a preceding page to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the most incredulous, that we, (coloured people of these United States of America) are the most wretched, degraded and abject set of beings that ever lived
As for the last two stories there has been a focus on African Americans view of themselves like the old man in Victor Sejour and Walker's view of the "wretchedness" of coloured people.
I shall be obliged to omit a large class of, and content myself with giving you an exposition of a few of those, which do indeed rage to such an alarming pitch, that they cannot but be a perpetual source of terror and dismay to every reflecting mind.
His set up first seems to glorify god but then switches to more of a realistic or humanitarian approach.
"'Master master' he shouted .... 'In heaven's name, follow me.' ' ' "Alfred raised his eyebrows. "'Please! come, come, master,' the mulatto insisted passionately. "'Good God,' Alfred replied, 'I believe you're commanding me.' "'Forgive me, master ... forgive me ... I'm beside myself ... I don't know what I'm saying ... but in heaven's name, come, follow me, because .... ' "'Explain yourself,' said Alfred, in an angry tone .... "The mulatto hesitated. "'At once; I order you,' continued Alfred, as he rose menacingly. "'Master, you're to be murdered tonight.' . '"B h · · ' I · ' y t e Virgm, you re ymg ... · '"M k 1·.c ' aster, they mean to ta e your 11e. "'Who?' '"Th b d' ' e an its .. "'Who told you this?' "'Master, that's my secret ..
There is an anaology I see when I read this, when you think of a person getting on to a dog for barking at the door over and over, think of the masters bickering towards the slave, but all the guard dog/ slave wants is to protect his master, ironically, enough that is exactly what is happening with the slave and the master.
Edgar Allan Poe had some success in the mid-nineteenth century United States writing about violent death, sexual obsession, and the human psyche under extreme mental or emotional strain. But in "Le Mulatre" Sejour took a literary risk his white American contemporary never attempted. Sejour grounded his studv of similarly extreme manifestations of individual pathology in a social reality
It seems to me that with Séjour's genre for writing had two barriers: the racial barrier and the uniqueness of subject. It wasn't until later that people could relate to someone like an Edgar Allen Poe.
Master," he said, "that's quite noble-hearted of you .... But you know, do you not, that a negro's as vile as a dog; society rejects him; men detest him; the laws curse him ....
The fact that this is a slave talking about the vileness of his people, can illustrate the impact of the masters on the slaves.
or instance, the hymn text now most associ-ated with African-American religious life, Newton’s “Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,” only appeared in the 1829 second edition of the African Union Hymn Book and in no other books I have mentioned here.
I found this very interesting that the song amazing grace had such deep roots in slavery.
American Methodists had infuriated Wesley years before by adapting their own hymn collections
The methodist had instead of using the conservative forms Wesley formed their own hymns, like Allen.
Several scholars have identified this book as among the first to include a type of folk hymn known as “re-vival songs” or “gospel hymns.”
As Phillips, this is his information pertaining to scholars view on Richard Allen's music. The scholars state that it is easy to memorize possibly because of its simplicity.
After Emancipation, hymn books began to appear that obvious- ly were not intended for use in the formal worship service, but rather for revival meetings, Sunday Schools, and informal gather- ing
After the hymns had made it all this way; they were still not considered good enough for the main services.
Although Allen's collection contains no Negro spirituals, it does indicate the kinds of source materials used by black Christians in composing Negro spirituals, and thus throws light on the origin of the spiritual. O
This is how the scholars viewed the African Americans expressing spiritual worship at the time.
tifs: of the trumpet sounding to raise "the sleeping dead" and call "the nations underground"; of the "world in flames," "the burning mountains," and rocks running "down in streams"; of the "falling stars" and "moon turn'd into blood"; and of the wicked turn'd "unto hell," while the Saints sit "at
The author might be giving us these songs help the reader visualize what the songs are about, and how the songs might be determined by conditions.
she brought to her imaginationthe once delightful fields of her native Hayti, now dy'd with the blood of her countrymen in their righteous struggle for liberty and for independence.
How might Theresa's views of her childhood differ from that of Phillis Wheatley, and how might that affect their views on their national pride?
she must depart from the endeared village ofher innocent childhood; still dear to her, though now it was become a theatre of many tragic scenes
The tragedy of the bloody contest is illustrated by the child's coming of age. She is stripped of her innocent mind; which is filled with violence.