https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/3041b4a07dbf0e274e6633e36adec2f5.pdf f02691cb7777307a60e956b67e222b83 PDF Text Text Gi) (cy CHAPTER III_ _ _---1 AFRICAN VOICE I N ECLIPSE~ JMITATION@ AGITATION 1746 ' 1865 I Slaves, though we be enroll'd / Minds are never to be ~sold - from David Ruggles' Appeals, 1835 M I u:i Overview C-- As we embark on a survey of the chronological development of /lack written poetry, it is important to remember that any study of such literature concerns that which is "written" and "available." The fact that one writer has made more works accessible to the public than another writer does not make him/ her the "greater. 11 In every era, quiet and important writers have been passed over in favor of litera ture that is more "timely," 'tlamboy~~t " a : "::~.~~ant(!: ::: : : :: Ct..t 9 9ii I :Ii I jEsj Oift1Bclllillli 3 a '!!"C! 1 ■ 2'"" '-.:' ■,. .... !!!! • ' ... ■ ..., ~ks 1(21£ ::ii/se••JJ• J •AIP, this 1¥ certainly is not an t o re . o e ,.1 anthology, /\ are ~ 11 [ will allow ~ ., 'r ua psal&g. 5o, while t-ep"esen"li,~e sa.m p L,ngs o ~ Pot$y ti VSed mments on styles, themes, subjects, language s, fecL ,a.re po.~~uLu,l'J ilYlpo~a.ttTfb o.n vnde"fflmt(h9 0J:'°-rh other aspec s • .n t r A The poems included, it is "' "',,..,.,._ _ ,.;V and t .L.. tCPI ccess to comparisons, ----- thf -,.+1~ ,,. 11J e,u,Ly po€t;y. eader and teacher immediate - entati ve analyses. · There \ also is no ove~iding effort to explain t he works in a "-"" 1~ �poem-by-poem breakdown . However , eo.c..t-i· c.ho..~Y' wi.LL 6u,Y oh al historical "running 11 a na lysis of' several poems with emptasis ~~s fa. ;,id.yt.a..r,. on how the poems can be read silently and aloud. · • one o F l1t t Le"'-$1" u ~~T"od dc--u. duJy fll' II 1/J, Literary and Social Landscape C - Blacks have been in t he Western Hemis phere almost as long as whites. Af'ter 1501 , most of the Spanish expeditions to t he New World included/ 1 ✓, So,., lack explorers.~ the time the @) slaves - to-be were brought on a Dut ch vessel to Jamestown in 1619, t h e presence of Blacks had been felt f'or at least@ year s (s ee Bennett, Franklin). Crucial to an understanding of early_J{lack poetry are the circumstances surrounding slavery and t ~ religious moods of both England and/ America. political and olonial~ evolutionary Briti sh America d id not follow t he Greco-Roman tra.:p dition of' t h e well:: ;. inf'ormed s lave. It was quite unlikely, ., then, that a "revoluti onary".)fiack poet would emerge from a social and literary landscape so charged with self'-righteou~ness ' and;(eoclassicis m {or from thej{omanticism of t he 180C::S ). Fight 11 (written in 1746 and published in Lucy Terry's "Ba 1895 ) could hardly be called 11 protest"; neither could the wor k of Phillis Wheatley, co nsidered the finest ..flack talent of th e 1olonial era, caught between contrivances of the enment and the approachi ng grip of the romantics. '1I [ Enlight The neoclassical �tradition that reached its height in the poetry of England's Alexander Popet had already begun to die out with the death of Pop) !ln■:," in 1744. All over/olonial America, however, white poets were imitating the stiff-collared conventionality of that period. The moral issues considered by most • ill - poets j ilack and white) ~universal brotherhood of man, quest for reason and order, the Jeffersonian ideals of freedom, liberty and representative government ~ were removed from the everyday brutality of slavery. Some of the most liberal men of the day (Jefferson, Washington, Hume) implicitly justified slavery by suggesting that Blacks were in some ways inferior. Despite Jefferson's pontifications on humanitarianism, he was unable to reconcile the disparity between his public stands and bis failure to manumit his own slaves. Although Jefferson carried on a written correspondence with)3lack astronomer and mathematician{ Benjamin Banneker, be considered Phillis Wheatley' s po-e.-. rry "beneath critic ism. 11 On the general American scene, the Revolution behind, a national literature had begun to emerge. Fascinated with American employment of new technology (Franklin's lightning experiments, printing presses, etc.) and the prospects of unexplored regions of the New World, writers started recording travels and observing the mixture of races and religi~ns. Although religious fervor was s t i l ~ i @ J I I sni ds 1SE b s j II t& 5 J:Irzlr ; I s es 1 political problems dominated. 4 Between 1790 and 1832 the new American government was being ~ CW,:; . consol id ated_, and the writings ofAmen -¼--i:ire William Bradford, �John Winthrop, Cotton Mather , Thor.m s Shephard, Roger Williams, Edward Taylor and Jonathan Edwards were succeeded by t he mbryonic nationalistic works of Franklin, Jefferson, :William Cullen Bryant, Charles Brockden Brown, Washingto n rving, William Gilmore Simms an:l James Fenimore Cooper. r rving, Cooper and Bryant were to become the early writers taught to American school children.1forten called the "New England Renaissance," the early decades of t he 9th /e ntury saw increasing tension between New England puritanism and~ outhern aristocracy over the question of slavery. over slavery Debates continued up to t he beg inning of t he Civil War. '\._, The early part of the century also saw the birth of many of rl;e developrnenToP white America's great est writers_, along withAromanticism and rugged individual is w. Mys tif'ied by the noble savage (Indians and sometimes Blacks) and challe nged by the "new frontier," Americans began to romanticize their situation and especially that of explorers, who became the first original _,ff lk her oes. White writers who dominated the period from 1826 1865 included Edgar Allan Poe (poet and short:: story writer, credited with creating the fir st detective in American fiction), Nat haniel Hawthorne (co ns.idered the first great American novelistk The Scarlet Letter), John Greenleaf' Hhittier, Henry Wadsworth J Longf'ellow, James Russe \ LoHell, Oliver 1vendell Holmes, Harriet Beecher Stowe (one of the first white American novelists to feature a ,/lack protagonist in fiction-1-Uncle /° /\,\ Tom's Cabin), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, 73 �Her man :ful ville (considered to have written one of the h andful of ngreat Tl American nove lsk f·lob:r Dick), Walt Wr.i t r:a D ( terrr.ed the "gr eatest" American poet~ Leaves of Grass) . r i marily po 11 t ica 1 activists Otb er writers, ~:-;;ti: ti onis t :i).,, inc 1 uded John C 1- . Calhoun, 1.-Jilliam Lloyd Garrison, and Abraha.r.1 Lincol n. their m-m and Using lack material , a nm;1ber of wbi te composers i mmortalized the era in songs ~ r;1an:- of t "h er,1 nationalistic. It Ha .c~ during t"hi~ period t bat Francis Scott Key wrote !'T~"' e St ar S:;-,z-. r:.. 6 l ed Banner ." 1i1ep:1en :1oster ~ as since ':een ac cused to music the s o~s s that were sung by slaves . of for Blacks to learn to read~ but many slave~ owners indulged their cbatte in i:1r i ti n 6 exercises as personal pasifimes and h obbies . \,J many of ~he early ack poet: ~ S~ grew up in relati ·1e security. To be totally free , David Walker observed in _ is Aopeal (1829) ) .. 1as to ~e economically insecure, socially ostracized a.nd psychot, logically oppressed . - Consequently, t h ose slaves pr i vi lel ged to read and write invariably took European literary models . Poets, of course, were not the only ones writing . In addition ~a.o/ to a olitionists-essayists, ttke Walker and Frederick Douglass, this period of lack literary activity was high li gh ted by exciting slave n a ~ iji]t:ek1 so sri fa r2 n: & snrts of @§C@P@d :.ialtfi i slrna 4 The most popular of these, and one of the first recorded, was Th9 Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equia.no, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789 ). Arna Bontemps includes it in his Great Slave Narratives (1969). �' L • .. ,... (\_\t •.{it\ '/ ~ \\'\nl !. • 1 - VaSSa, wh o al s o included ~ some notable verse~ co~structed a story pattern that was to becor:e fa miliar to readers •~arly America: - that of t he escaped, freed or run ~away slave wh o '--' reported his or her hardsh i ps and struggles . Vassa describ es ,.., his life in Africa up until t h e time of h is kidnap Jing . With .._,/ vivid memory and detail, he establish es the orig inal bases for what we have come to call t h e "African f ontinuum" in America. It is not just mere coincide nce t hat t h is statement fro ~ 1789 1'H' ,t - - fi ts"parts of j iack America of today. We are almost a nation of da ncers, musicians, and @ poets. Thus every great e vent ••• is celebrated in public dances which are accompanied with songs and music suited to t h e occasions . Vassa 's debut into this li terar:r genre was followed by hundreds of other narratives, many of t h em fakes . Early Negro Writing: ....__., Dorothy Porter, in 1760ql 837 (1971), has discussed the problem of determining auth enticity of t he narratives . ,ew,e►iT-,,1 Mrs. Porter is librarianJ\of the Hoorland Foundation at Howard Universityi wh ich houses an outstanding collection on t h e @oak sb,r lncluded ~ ~ heA~ lack pas ~ -,:n µ2._) nstitutions and laws of beneficial societies; speeches before mutual aid and educational societies; the re port of the earliest annual convention for the improvement of free people of color; arguments for and against coloni zation; printed letters, sermons , petitions , orations, lectures, essays, religious and 75 1161 5 �moral treatises , and such creative mani festations as poems , prose narratives, and sh ort essays. Mrs. Porter thus sums up the intellectual and literary output • • t.\l'iT· of the 1t'\ (f I &,.mef\,c. • AfricanpA The word "Africanf " was used generously by most writers and speakers of the era. not empl~~<:i; it was Y.e.~Lctced. "Black, II" When "African" was ~Y sy~o11ym.s-:=S<Jc.'1 (li ''C loured, 11 "an Ethiopian Princess_" . ., .. _at&& - Placed against the sometimes sophomoric and heretical accusations of some of today's / lack critics, these early displays of pride in the African heritage make! one want to sen,i1!_'mf,,ny uninfo1'me.!('~~,e~'f1• back to school! In addition to the plethora of pamphlets, broadsides, b ooks and news orga1that emerged fromjlack individuals and insti tutions during the period up to the end of the Civil War, there was also much political-social consciousness , raising through oration. In the early year ~ great religious and political leaders such as Richard Allen, Peter Williams, Absalom Jones, Prince Hall (founder of / lack Masonry), Paul Cuffee and Daniel Coker, took up projects of "mutual aid" for Africans. Their work set the stage for missionary, abolitionist and self-help ~ tv.Y programs undertaken later by people ttire Jarena Lee, Frederick t\ Douglas s , R. Hartin Delaney, Sojourner Truth\..., and Alexander Crummell,•L•r•---908HWWg•-,,........li■l■l•se• The intellectual , religious and moral work of Blacks in the North was paralleled by the development of folk materials 7(p �(the songs and stories) of Blacks on/ outhern plantations . In genera~ few states , Nortb or South , allowed educational or vocational opportunities for Blacks. Thus the energies of early J lack writers and intellectual5..>= Mrs D 1 k i L; ~ re B211tn &ttci 'ifillic11n __fa, r,,,, m itteJ fo .---_ various "African" societies and free sch ools, a nd the promotion of literacy and self-betterment among newly freed slaves. n7iil ( J Jill bl LBS IICF C t .iuib j bhc Yr J g; g;yz1 Rella a J The Rev Allen , popular religious crusader and founder of tre Beth el African Feth odist Epis copab Church , seems to have been referring to the sa.'i!e ;(lack "sensib ilit~r" describ ed by Vassa when he said (in 1793 ) t hat b e was conf i dent that there was no religious sect or denomination that wo1ld suit the capacity of the colored pe ople as well as the 11eth odis • Sure I am that reading • •• sermons will never prove so beneficial to t he colored people as spiritual or extempore ('"I preaching___ •••• Huch evidence exists, t h en , of Blacks banding together fo r "mutual" co ncerns in t h e early days of America. Tbe h orrors of slavery, t he psychological: pressures of / orthern "freedom," white reprisals in wake of slave revolts (such as t h ose led by I Gabriel Prosser in 1800, Denmark Vesey in 1822 and Nat Turner in 1831), made for a most unsettling atmosphere (see Walker's 77 �Appeal). Reporting on white America's "need" to ven t its fears and hatreds on Blacks, Winthrop Jordan (Wbi te / ver Black, J ✓ 1968 ) noted that whites initially feared t bree t h ings: .J. oss of identity , lack of self-control and sexual license. In an effort to escape the "animal within h i mself the white r.ian dej:_, based t h e Negro, surely, but at t he same time b e debased himself." And a young Frenchman., Alexis de Tocqueville, visiting America in 1831, said racial prejudice was "stronger in t h e states that b ave abolished slavery than in those where it still exists." Needless to say., creative literature of the "artyn sort (though much of it was being done at the ti me) was not t he number one pri ority for Black ,J f: a l 7 3 2 iil a tuts f <;!evertbeles~ a literary tradition did develop and flouris h in ~,,,,.,_,.__ / lack America. The example of t he narratives (including t h ose • ? by Ha.rrant., Douglass and Truth ) led to publications by the ,J,,ct first f lack novelist and playwright, William Wells Brown. Brown's novel was Clotel: x or,,zj-ie President 's Daughter (1 8531 and h is play was called Escape: ._¢r ~ ,K Leap to Freedom ( 1857). The second novel by aJlack American was The Garies and their Friends (1857) by Frank J. Webb . Delaney published t he t h ird novel , Black, or the Huts of America, in 1859. Webb were b oth published in England. The works by Brown and Brown also worked~ in t he cause of abolition and other social=reform programs. His Anti-Slavery Harp (1848) contained songs and poems whose themes are implied in the book's title. The pattern of the jlack educator, intellectual or artisan carrying on the dual rol creator and activistt, characterizes the h istory of.f-ack \ f �creativity in America. YetJ r. any critics / lack and white, unaware of the stresses and demands on}'flack artists1 do not approach their sub jects with ....., o..n understanding o~ thl's. f.n.c-"t, j ,,,.. Political journalism (see Dann's The Black Press, 1327;; _ 90), als~} was a strong vein in the development of_)3lack American '- writing. Beginning with John Russwurm (the second..$lack colle ge graduate and first p ib ack newspaper editor ~ Freedom's Journal, 1827; 29), and evolving through Ruggles' Hirror for Liberty (£1rstpack magazine , 1838 ), Douglass• Monthlyl(l 844J ~ ) o'::'t h Star (1847), to Hamilton's Anglo-African Magazine (1 859), t he tradition ofj lack journalis m and research on the African ex perience was firmly established. Huch of the journalistic writing (like t he poetry) took pros or cons on tbe questio n of i~gration, colonization or tbe elevation of t he J lack ,aa.n' s plight in America. During the early and middle years of the ~ entury, white travelers through the Soutb collected and compiled slave I song~eculars and}½irituals. the weU.sf''''"j f-or- These songs !ilJllil later pt-ovtded much of the ;(lack and white writing the mes. On the eve of the Civ il Har, t h e Dred Scott decision (a hlow to to slaves and abolitionists) h el~step up the demands for the abolishment of slavery. Brown's The Black Man ( 1863) was a capsule of one era closed on the blasts of cannon and ze another that opened on t h e sound of jubilant shouts. �III - Co) THE VOICES ON THE TOTEN "Mean mean mean to b e free" 3 I c..... ~ - 1-Robert Jfa·:,rde n M -- - Against the foregoing bac kground , t h e poets of/ olonial ~ volutionar:rf lavery America appear curious, tearful , exciting , paradoxical, frightening and puzzling. Bib lical i : -,1 a s ery, classical allusions and t h emes, b atred of slavery a r.d a r.1b i guous prai se for s lave1masters, recollecttons of Africa, ap peals and co nder,matior:s ,h all become enmeshed in the i n tricate linguistic M and psyc'!:': ological webbing of t h is early poetry . I n 1770 , at 1 years of a g e, t h e pri7ileg ed slav e g irl Ph illi s 1· .. eatley be came the first/ in Eng lish and Americijn poetry. A 1erican ::- 00tr::r lack "exception to the rule" And for d ecad e ~ stud ents of Mi" \ ~a.a g ose ab out t he ir recitations and researcl} a n t houg!1 n ot'ting or no o ne of i mportance 1-: appe r..ed ✓ befweeV\ he~-lliYt e It was not until 1893 t h at L~cy Terr7 ' s "Bar's Fis:1t 11 - Lt1-:o acc ount of a l 7L~6 I nd. ian r:~assa cr e i~ .Deerfiel d, M ::ass ac::n :se tts ~ c ar,ie to pU 1)l ic li c:: t. a,--,_ot~e @ A :~c. r eaders l1 ad ::-et :-,)a.rs t o Hait before Oscar 'Te,:eli::1 i ~ '2.. '7 1-} d i s covered J up i ter .!a:.-.: :·.1on ' s "An Eveni n.; T ~"} OU 6 ~t , Salvation ½:- C1:"} rist, j-itl1 Penitential Cries" (1761) i n t h e New.:York Historical Society, t bus establ ishing Hammon as t~e first published African poet in America . �:It h<4s bee.-, ,;, ctn c_ho.p"f:i~ " ~ r:1e ntio~1cdAearlier ~ t~ a t . :a:::-- 2. nt;:; olocies o:-~i t Fi5.1t. 11 11 :'3n.r ' s Tb i s i s undcrstanda '.~ :1..eJ s i ~:.c e ::iss Terr:· ( 1730 '18jl) never uro te., or at lea ::i t pre sent ., d , a n:r ore iiterar:' worl:s . America' s 11 first i-Tegi-•o poet, '1 t ~ en , is L·1p or ta nt prLlaril:~ for b eing just t h at 'M"fir st . !.,ike L.ut.y7i,.y New England slaves., ~ Fh;Uis - 1:n:. eatlcy , Vassa and ot1: er dd,1a t ed as a c!1 ild a ~1d ,_,r ou ,:;i__,: t _, to New England (Rh ode Isla nd) . S~ e witnessed t !1e I nd ia n raid -:•ra.s ~ wh\'-t.._ Sh.ow! • reported in h0 r ~ -line doGgerel) ••• w,,l\..a flair for stor:rtell i :-:z . Hence,) d e spite the poe::1 ' s 11 0., v iously weak literary ::neri t, 11 t l-1i s ,)(lack writer perforr1:.ed one of t:-:e earliest services of t t e 1 1 poet-tbat of' a singer of' l': istor-. ~ ~ MM- in recordincD actual na,:1e s and places in h er narrati v e . S i nce s h e was ~ f ~ ears-/old a nd a servant g irl, writing ·1as surel:r :-iot ~er primar'!fy res po ~ s i bili ty . Yet 11 Bar ' s Fig::"; t 11 ac':-}ie ves some succ ess when seen aga i nst t h e oral traditio n i n poetry: Listen my children and you shall h ear Of' the midni gh t rid e of Paul '1e v ere . or How , ch ildren ., I ' :·1 g oi ng t o tell you tbe s tory a b out raw-h ead a nd b loody- b ones ! a nd ~ere was an old woman wh o lived in a s h oe She had so many c h ildren s h e d i dn ' t know what to do . Compa r e th e f'or ego ing l ines to August 'twa s , the t wenty - fifth , Seventeen h und red 81 �The Indians did in ambush lay, S ome very t men to slay, The names of whom I'll not leave out: Samuel Allen like a hero fout, and t he elemental connectio ns will readily be seen.. One b as only to read this poem aloud to get b oth t he effects a nd ~ / Terry's apparent intentions. $ worked for an Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, r-I assachl\t, Ill L setts; C!Jt t married a free/ children. I Wh en s h e wrote "Bar's Lvcy Fi gh "'l' s ke freedom ten years later ~ she 1 lack man , Abijah Prince, by whom she h ad six given ~ Prince later became the owner of co nsiderable land and was one of tbe founders of Sunderland, Ver mont. tvc..y Robinson (Early Black American Poets) lists t h ! L ~S and ri ghtly so. , . . . and the Princes 1-Jilliam Terr~r w:t t h Other details about 4i!!?J \..~,. an b e obtained from George Sheldon's A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts , 1 89.5. ~"''•¥e· See o..Lso £il~eK SocSTiet--n~ "tb,.e~'R.f a~ -sTave p~and nteFectual, Jupiter Hammon (1720 ?Nl 800 ?) provides yet another look into the capab ilities, mind f sets and limitations of Africans in_){o lonial America. Hammo n is ge nerally not regarded as an "important"_;it1- ack writer~ but is distingui sh ed for b eing the first African in America to publish bis verses. This be did in 1761 ( "A n Evening Th ought ," composed in December of 1760); 1778 ("An Address to Miss Ph illis Wheatley"); 1782 ("A Poem for Children"); a id in the mid 1780'"'s ("An Evening's '- Improvement tr). In his "Address to the Ne groes of t h e State of Hew York" (written in 1786 and published in 1 806)J Hammon ·)ou,er; . i 51 t • tJ ~~ ~ a tradition t h at included pamph leteers - like /\ �~-! alker., Ruggles and ot'1ers of t h e period . !Iammon 1 s "Address" sough t freedo m for younger Blacks, claim~ng t hat 11 for my own part I do not wish to b e free." Tb is statement appears., on the surface., to be t h e ulti mate in self-debasement and self-denial; but one b as to view it in t b e context of statements by de Tocqueville., Walker, and others , along with ~ the circums t ances of t he aging and religious Hammon . That Hammon himself was deeply relie ious is reflected i n his poetry-Las with ma ny j lack poets, e . g. Hayden today-I- "" ) I and he obviously lab ored under t he influence of Methodism and the Wesleyan l(evi val ( see Early .Jegro Hri ting ) . phiLL,s t e;- / . In t h e poem Wh eatley , h e notes t h at it was t hrough that "God's ,., tender mercy" t h at sh e was kidna, ped from Africa and bro.ugh t to America as a slave. And Hammon seemed, generally , to -t'he r eflec t .-..iAprevaili ng wh ite attitude toward the "dark" co ni tinent: one engulfed in i snorance, ½ar~aris m and evil . I)~\ LL\i Obviously not as well read as MIIIIIIII~1dh ea tley ., Hammon was unable t o/\f • levels. --- &:IJ~~\ln • I M t ----- universal and intellectualll 11 ••dll 8or n a slav ,,~~zt belonged to t he influential f amily of Lloyd 1 s !Teck on Long Island and was e ncouraged his masters to write a nd pu ::ilish poetry . by There is not a great deal of informat i on a va i lab le on t h e life of Ha mmon; but i t is difficult to unders t a nd why an intelligent / lack man., wh o lived such a long life, mirrored almost complete ignorance of the horrors of slavery Ldespite the !? 1't·daily local newspaper and verbal accounts and dis cussions of the �11 peculiar i nstitution . " ~ fammo n I s 11 terar:• mod, '1-o.S. : the co nventional material of hymns of t h e period. :Stiss t::w Thougbt , 11 sa :s bttats ht r as tts @1116£ b!F :I i:Jp •:9••·J•f••••• nA n Eveni ng wh ich ~~YPorter tells u s was probabl y 11 cb a nt ed du1. . i ng t 1-::G delivery of a sermo n ," begins: Salvation comes by Ch rist alo ne; The only Son of God; Redemption now to every one, 0. That love h is only word. Dear .Jesus we would fly to thee, And leave off e v ery Sin, Thy tender Mercy well a gree; Salvation fro m our kin~ . .. Like U,c.y Terry , Hammon was not primarily a. poet . And h ence, unlike approaching Phillis Wheatley , one s h ould not spend too i;mch time or b e t oo h arsh in criticizi ng ( or complai ni ng a b out) h im. The b asic structure of the English hymn _/ wh ich merged with the / piri tua14.t as Hammon i nterprets it is a. n alternat ion of iambi c tetrameter and iamb ic trime ter comb i ned with a rath er clums:r a. a b ---- rhyme scheme . Compared to other 1-;yrms, it is no worse a nd is better t h~ n n_:an¥ y .. £ ~espite !t the times, pressures ;t /,1/ { · and c ensures , however ,l(Pte la L assurance to the slave , • Cr llJ l!1 to ace • In Christian :faith t hou h ast a s hare , 0 Worth all t h e g old of Spain. �work~ •••••:•J•n-?•~•m critically introduced in Robi nson 's anthology, in Stanley Ransom 1 8 America's First Negro Poet, t he Complete Works of Ju piter Harmnon of Long Island ( 1970) ..._,,s.nd in Barksdale~ and Kinnamon's Black Writers of Americ (1972); . a.L~ a.p_p£(Lt'S critical-biographical attention •~in Vernon Loggins• The Negro Author ( 1931) ..- J. Saunders Redding ' s To .fake Black ( 19 3 9 )-! ~ /Be-;;i-m In B"1wtey~ "the Ne~ iirtc::::' :tl •-• r:3&00.i Gu1tj1 n 1). 3 B1 : i;llilbd I 2 Ji ( :W,~Jillll •if!t h>'l!!& 0 Q t'.Wilaff Ther8 h a~ :li,e en sub stantial critical-biographical Jt l:::;~~t4?~)-t 1 treatment of Niss 4§h t iW 1-1) K Poet ! lid f&ll CbdS.!:dGI &biblh 1Uo1<p'o uiU ti •~-:w1 &Q 1 s I By far t he most gifted and com ~ plex poet until Dunbar , Phillis Whe atley was also privilef ged ~ as a young child and allowed access to the Boston library of """'\ John Wbeat1t:1J. to whom she was sold after being brought fro m Senegal when she was six or seven years old& ,r],ger • 11asi1 1lv • ~J,e 1am1 1 sa d ~1Jti>eJ By the t;Je •Ab er teens she had learned to speak and write Englisht and/\ acquired a :New England education) which put great emphasis on the { ible and the classics. Her poetry,~L~ o ~ ' ,,, {, ,.Y ·• · ll · I reflects deep interest in and knowledge of religion; but it is also steeped in classical allusions and conventions of the neoclassical writing school. attention to Miss Theatley (who ~- pt, .,_..,,;$,l __./,, { ~ ~ Critical like Dunbar , lived a sh ort life) has,\hoor1 botbr;;:.;ir~ rMi unkind . Benjamin Brawley (The Negro Genius) reports tha t Jefferson viewed her as beneath t he dignity of criticism. Yet , other great personalities of t he day generously praised and received her work . George �Wash ington, so moved by her poetic tribu te ( 11 To His Excellency General Washington 11 ) , invited t he young poet to visit hi m at h is camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts -an invi tation which she ~ k ~ later acceptedj &Qi was treatedµ royalty. Phtlwl J ■ i:fueatley 's earliest verses were penned during - . f her adolescence . "On the Death of the Rev. George of Whitefield: '""177ot " re.fleets the elegaic theme l\.1~ioh much of her poetry. fi1ezi1pi'iil Manumitted and sent with other members of the Wheatley family to London in 1772, because of frailness and poor health , - ;J,~as received like a visiting dignitary in London's literary circles and hailed as the "Sable :i:viuse. 11 The next year (1773), while in London, she became (at ~year~old) the first African, arrl t he second woman from America, to publish a book of poems : Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Horal , b y Phillis 1·. 1 , :regr o S va nt to Mr . 'W heatley only one sh e ever publi b ed, b~ on. ey , The volume, the an i mmediate success i n both England and America and won her an everlasti ng place in both C\H1 n~1tl t he h istory of English poetry in Alli 1~ Upon her return to America, zr:Gn 17 !/~isfortunes seemed to come i n such ligh tning succession that one wonders h ow she withstood adversity as long as she did. First, t h ere was the death of :Mrs. 'Wbea tle~ and then, during the 17701",s , t he deaths of t he remaining \vheatleys, The poet t hen married a Jorr{Peters, who "proved to be both ambitious and irresponsible," for whom she bore three children-/4 all of whom died in infancy. �Additi onally , t b e Peters fa ·,iil:r li v ed in s qualor a nd po•rn r ty , . lJnd~a,.~ese..c.,~Cvfnrrll,ll,t.S,~;u,s ;J.fa.lfliJ whl(,h h~J beeti toonJ'hVflltS1Ji.,Ltd htt-~aMU.y , ... \..,,11.\' like so many Hew Eni::; land Blac ks ·A Coi:lli,lentinc on t h e cir cun . s t anc es surroundi n;:;.: b er de atl-:, , Bar --:sdale a nd K, nna,·io r:: (r-n nc k - Writers of Araeric a ) ~- • , , J _, _ - s to~ac~- curdli ~s accuracy : ~ _ab . Her e a rly de a t h provi des a coRme ntar~ on t h e de sperate rnargi ~alit~ of life arilor..g :9os ton ' s fr ee Blac ks at t ::e.t t i r:e . 6 S:c P't illis ':-Tb eatl ey , s~ i p, freedom's uncertainities a nd insecur ities were overwhe l mi ng . Certainly, b ad she been initially free in Boston, she would probably never have had t he time, the oppor tunity , or the peace of mind to write poetry. For the state of freedom for t he Black man in the 1780 's -even in godly, liberty-loving M Boston- ~was indeed precarious. A-\ The preceding explanation, coupled again with the observations of Walker, de Tocqueville and others, make Hammon's statement ~ about preferring not "to be f'ree" somewhat mor ;. not plaus t.ble. / -lie-no-ted that Phillis Wheatley has been praised as well as condemned. Some critics denounce her for not being inventive and original enough, claiming that she simply followed the cont ventions and themes associated with neoclassicism: _truth , ~ / alvation, _J(ercy and )1'.oodness. Some resent her so-called "pious ~ iO t 1 �sentimentality" and a cuse her of calling on Christ when she should be calling for the abolishment of slavery. Still r,~,..,., others, during the current period, have accused her of not being "1'lack enough." /. times, however, -illiiii wi~,.; Considered ,he 1\1 tl1'e landscape of the A _ ■ •~em~U · as a genius ~ with hardly an equal amongflck or white contemporaries. James Weldon Johnson, during a comparison of Miss Wheatley's "Imagination" to Anne Bradstreet's "Contemplation, 11 saidJ ''We do not think the black woman suffers by comparison with the wbi ten etry). Duri ng her life~tim~---==~eatley published some @ poems, almost half of them elegies, five or six political . and patriot~pieces ("General Washington" and "Liberty and Peace " ), and the remainder consumed by religious and moral , J~ i ri c I subjects-~as she states in her title. M Though she qever deals ~ "" . ith the question of slavery~ and makes only,xf;Mwl reference to her own predicament-~her work sustains a high level of emotional, JV\ linguistic, religious and general poetic force. Since her greatest models were Pope, Dryden, Milton and the earlier classi cal writers, one must examine these sources to uncover some keys to her techniques arrl allusions. But one Jonl~ ha~ to read (aloud) the following passage from "Rev. George Whitefield" to feel impact: "Take him, ye wretched, for your only good, "Take him, ye starving sinners, for your food. ''Ye thrifty, come to this life-giving stream, �'~e preachers , take h i m for your joyful t heme; "Take h i m, my dear Americans , he said, "Be y our complaints on h is kind b osom laid; "Take him, ye Africans, h e longs for you , '~mpartial Savior is his title due; '~ashed in the fountain of redeeming blood, '~ou shall be sons and kings , and priests to God." 1 11 ' Ltmvenii'on • ~ (er-"ti(nlyihes0 aeS onlo.ln i~~mtnie1,.L ?o~e-'l"'lt~o.it"~~i, M1e sh~uld state t hat some of t 'he previousl:· h arsh critic ism o f ' ~ P~i Llis Wheatley has been te mpered in light of' increasing i'eminism and, especially , efforts by/ lack women wr iters, sch olars and intellectuals to re~ valuate h er wCH''K; JW.0$$0F '¼ done in e ;w,atug • , Ult heroic couple{ whic~ tJJJJcit is minated the period.« These penta1;1eter couplets (which would be · popularized in the ~ ntury as "unrhymed iambic pentameter" by Robert Frost) call for end-line rhymes to appear in twos, with ® syllables per line. Roger Whitlow (Black American e>h~LL <.s Literature) complains t hat -....~-Jheatley ".falls short in what Pope called the 'correctness' o.f diction and meter, that near-per.feet choice of word and measurement and weigh ing of syllable." One could agree , if QI were simply to imitate. 2 q;;;;;;~~~ole aim But t he re is a great evidence that mt,.h'f she-(. like~lack poets sizraws z M o.n o.vcl:\,Lv • trying to achieve "readable poem without losing the essence of the couplet. After all, as Stephen Henderson (Understanding the New Black Poetry) bas suggested, many~ lack poets have their ears and thought-rhythms attuned to the spiritual and phonological �demands of the audience that loves "extempore" delivery, even when the written lines are strict and tight. Also, in placing "Their colour is a diabolic dye" in quotations ( "On Being Brought from Africa to America "l, , ,r,•,Lll~ Wheatley suggests that others deem her color negative but 'i that she may not. This remains a possibility despite her closing couplet: Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, /) May be refined, and join the angelic train. Yet there is firm evidence that 7 ~ 1 / \ \ s not insen own sitive, at least to her •~redicament as a slav~without a fundamental and gene t ogical identity. In "To fn e Right Honourable William, Earl or Dartmouth," ..... she says: Should you, rrry lord, while you peruse my song, Wonder from whence my love or Freedom sprung , Whence flow these wishes for the common good, By feeling hearts alone best understood, I, young in life, by seeming cruel rate Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in rrry P~ V breast? Steel'd was that soul and by~ no ~ sery mov'd That from a rather seiz'd his babe belovtd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway? / The capital "F" in "Freedom," the phrase "cruel fate," the sorrow felt for her parents and the reinforcement or the agony �via repetition ("such, such"; see Ma rgaret Walker's lines "How Long!"), place her alongside othe'llack voices that searched for answers to the pall of racial insanity that enshrouded the. Phillis wb.eatley also experiments w:i,th the hymn forui~ In "A Farewell / o America" and "An Hymn/ o Humani t~" one bounces along with her alternating lines and rhythms. Perhaps the capstone of the critical "shift" in viewing Phillis Wheatley 1 s work was the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival, held in November 1973 to commemorate the at Jackson State ~ 20_?~ anniversary e Colle ge, Mississippi, of the publication of Poems. At that festi va~ writer Luci Horton noted that recently yhere has been more respect for the 0 slave gi rl who, under unspeakable cir cumstances, was able to write poetry or any literature at all." Ebony magazine (March 1974) featured a five-page picture essay on the festival, organized and hosted by Margaret Walker, poetno elist and )~'irector of Jackson State's Institute for the Study ~ 1Jj of story, Life and Culture of Black Peoplec, According to EbonyJ "eighteen Black women poets converged" on the j iack college campus to salute Phillis Wheatley, read their own poems and discuss poetry and life. Other poets participating in the festival included: Naomi Long Madgett, Margaret c. Burroughs , Marion Alexander, Margaret Esse Danner, Linda Brown Bragg, Mari Evans, Carole Gregory Clemmons, Lucille Clifton, Sarah Webster Fabio, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Gloria c. Oden, Paula Giddings, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Malaika Ayo Wangara (Joyce Whitsitt Lawrence) and Carolyn M. Rodgers. • ••• ,.............. _ ___ _ , .... ..., .. , -· J ·~ ..... ~ . _ .................._ _ , _ ~·-~· ~ ,.- �The festival was also the subject of a six-page picture essay by Carole Parks in Black World lii••·-,--blll!lh!lll!t...lf'l l !fo"S~b!,llll!J--•lW.f••o-•s••-•rlil11112~::"&l!ll!B,. <{/,,Yet , a most reveali ng c o:nrnen t a ::peared sh ort ly a f t e r 'th~ flestblLlr( We bruar:y 1974 ). i n M. A. Richmond• s Bi d /h e V2.ssal :::>o ar : I nterp reti ve .c.s says on t he Li fe and Poetr of Ph illis \'V h ea tl e-v and 6 eor e '(o s es Horto tl 974 ) Reacting . P-~ILU~ t,A,eC1.,ey -........ 1 to the adverse criticism of 5 j g) Ri chmo nd s t a tes : 1t!!!!!!!, These poems a re vic ario u s i n theme and i mit a tive in s t y le~ In the circumstances it hardl y could have been differen . ~h e was permitted t o cu ltivate her i nt elli gence , to develo p her feeling for language an d h er f a ci l ity i n its use, but one thing she was not p ermitted t o dev elo p : the s ens e of her own disti n c t identity a s a bl a ck noe"tc:i An d wi thout t h is t here coul d be no perl sonal di s tinc t ion in s t yle o r t h e choic e of t h emes t h ~t make for great poetry© The bar ter of h e r sou l, a s it we re, was no con~ scious contrac t 8n clos e d by a cloying embrace of sla very - at a t en der a ge , a l t ernati ves did not first intrude, and l ater, ~men she mi gh t h ave chosen one , she was dr a ined of the wi ll and pe rcep tion t o do s o . -••2-111,.tt,JPI-IILlll!IIII.JIIIIL!IIL111;•-- - • · - ,--a!llllllllls1!!111£1si!ll!!l!&..lllt111s1111a11f1 e,f,.,t1 _ ~R,tl\m.<m.o has ft"ovided wh at a ppears to be a balanced answer to the prote s tations of Reddi ng , Brown, Brawley ("no racial �value 11 ) ..., and others. It re mains to e s een ~ ,1 h ether c urr e nt and future generations of)3lac k a nd wh ite 1s tudent s ~ eh,lll~ vi ll ke e p --~eatley a "statuie in t he park " or bring :-J er ...;.,, (<Lyde.t 4.y lo ..-) () to t he t a le and "examine h er hlood and be art II ACritic al t reatoent of this firs~l ack woman of le tter s :l:::!!.:.:::J has be e n ext ens i ve : '-.Julian Mason' s Th e Poems of Ph illis Wh eatl e~r (1966 ) ; ar ks dale ~ and Kinnamon' s critic al i ntrodu ction; Ro'bert C . Y.:uncio's "Some Un pu1::J lis~ed Po e::n:: of Ph i l li s T·10 eat l ey 11 ( ~ ll..~ .nlj/1}.D;.Q. QQaf t@FJ v, XLIII, J une , 1 <? T"' , 2 °7~ i..,,f"'':'): !.:o ~'__: i :1 :: ' Th e ~~.;;::!';re .lu t'!:1or (1931); Brawley' s Th e Negro Ge nius; Redd i ng 's To Ha ke ;( Poe t Black; Shirley Graha m's The Story of Philli s (1949 ); and .Jerry Ward~ a nd Charl es ~ owe ll's art icle Freed omway s Sv nih'i8"-11tf7'1-). ~,es lno:ra eh10 e dp mar:'lf ta* Gustavus V ssa (1745 1801), one '-------~- ______, . of the mos t interesting of the early writer& _. In atw h½u!ll a er s ~vi ,ltr,c t.'1 · ~ ' jorn the seventh and youngest s on of ch i eft ~ {i n A Essake , now Eastern Nigeria) Vassa (African name: Olaudah " Equia no ) 1as first sold to a Virginia plantation owner. His j our ney s l ater took him on several Atlantic voyages and then to the Ned i terranear, where he served in the Seven Yeari Wa r . Vas s a h eld technical jobs on ships as a result of his adep4 ness at the English language and bis mastery of basic math e matics. He became a tireless worker for the abolition of slavery and worked , briefly, in behalf of efforts to colonize A, poor ~lacks or England in S1errA Leone. Vassa is chierly known ror his Narrative (1789 t which was a best-seller among abo �litionists in England and America . Slave narratives, we have -hto., observed, were a part of a branch ofJ31ack writing wl!l8i!,1gave rise to the more sophisticated autobiographies (that stretch from Douglass through Baldwin and Cleaveri which in turn laid some of the foundation for American fiction. Vassa was not the first writer of a slave narrative, as is popularly thought. Briton Hammon (no relation to Jupiter) published in London A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverance of Briton Hammon, pl Negro Man ( 1760 )J and John Ma.rrant published (also in London) A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings with J. Ma.rrant, £Black (1785) . ::3\· > Vassa, whom e turn to briefly for his efforts in poetry, included "Miscellaneous Verses" in his Narrative. His verse is interesting because it helps to establish the portrait of a complex and many-sided man; it also provides further insight into the workings of the African mind making contact with white culture and especially Christianity. While in his prose and speech-making Vassa was firm in his attacks on slavery, he proves in the end to be a believer in some ultimate force of "deliverance." In the last line of the last stanza of his "Verses" he reminds usJ iffi&t. 1£,, "Salvation is by Christ aloneJ" J'hich is, of course, reminiscent of Hammon's opening line: ® Salvation come by Christ alon ,,, Nevertheless Vassa's language is less saturated in/iblical terms than Hammon's. of And the former, as verse writer, has a better control •~he language. In the "Verses" he applies a �driving iambic tetrameter <!'.!.!3 with an a ab b rhyme scheme: Those who beheld my downcast mien Could not guess at my woes unseen: They by appearance could not know The troubles I have waded through. Lust, anger, blasphemy, and pride, With legions of such ills beside, Troubled my thoughts while doubts and fears Clouded and darken'd most my years. In the first stanz4 t!!.31 Vassa presages the duality and mental pressures that more skilled writers would describe,. It rs I 41 as.m 11 Implying that the job of the oppressed Black is to keep his head L-t\lel and up, Vassa says even those who see him in his sorriest state cannot envision the sufferings he has eni Moflt11io,, t1-.c.etaT~~ Du,eha,-. dured. /\ say, the same thing in a different way in ''We Wear the Ma.sifrtJ _ __________ And Countee Cullen would state it more than 130 years later in yet a different way. This apparent ability of Blacks to "keep cool" and adapt (see Johnson's The Autobiography of fn Ex-Coloured ~.ian) under the most trying circumstances has been promoted, nurtured and praised by leaders of the race. an early writer Vassa, then, is important as not only because of his skill, but for the insight and understanding he brings to the social and religious pressures, demands and choices around him. There is a releasing therapy in Vassa's work which acts as only one of numerous �~4' conduits for j lack angu i sh and outrase w' 1en t he ,-_o ptions were slavery or death . Vassa's Narrative is mos t accessible in Bontemps s( Great Slave Narrative s (19 6c; ). I n 1967 Paul Edwards published an edition of the Narrative i nclucling a comprehen sive introduction . Edwards also did a two-volume facsimile reprint of the first edition (1969). See als o Africa Remembered: rarratives by West Africans from the I ra of t ~e Slave Trade, edi t ed by Phillip D. Curtin (1967). Loggins assesses the arrative and Robinson provides a ha ndy biographical-criti cal introduction. Hore on Vassa can be found in Marion L. Starkey 's Striving to Hake It My Home~ _ The ~t.ory of A111erican~fro,n Africa and in '!/Jh itlow's Black American Literature. The early and middle years of the i1 tsb:- century witnessed the maturation of f lack autobiography, political journalism and abolitionist activities. George Moses Horton was @ years old when William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator (1831), the most influential and famous of the ab olitionist newspapers. And ~~~ ),,830 ther~ were more than @ J lack antislavery societies Jt;'.~( ~ ,. ~ I ~ in Awtii6£ lea.- lacks i'.1- t'!n .. r1 tad- r ~o!!I had been stL.~•d by ,n~-ttVM'tt,~~ ~,.,vi_ 1// slave rebellions bot h --•~and in places ~ Haiti.,... tae .. +o c.,t; tee ~ A~• Ac..r, 'fl' s rs Carribea~ and Trinidad . Especially inspiring during this i/4/:::;x " period was the 1839 revolt of slaves aboard the Spanish schooner HJAmistad. -- Led by Joseph Cinque, a Mendi-speaking �c . -· ., •~ I prince, the fi.fty slavesc'!y·killed the captain, set the crew .;.:.., adrift and demanded t ha ~ sbi p~owners steer the ship to Africa. Apprehended, the Africans were escorted by a United States brig to New Havel!, wher e t h ~ & other charges. a raced murder and Ex-Preside nt Joh n Quincy Adams defended the Africans' right to re t urn to their homeland) and in 1842 they sailed to Sierr; Leone. Ironically, neither the international ,d:i, press nor most Blacks knew o.f the connection between ~Cinque of the Symbionese Liberation g ott;:r~pparently headquartered in northern California duri ng 1973 "'i4, and the Cinque of the Amistad revolt. In light of t h e growi ng consciousness among Blacks, it was to be expected t hat« George Hoses Horton (1797.!.1883) I'" N would appear to inveigh a gai nst tyranny and slavery. Born a slave near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Horton is considered to be the first Black to emp loy protest themes in a volume of verse. His Hope of Liberty (1829) ranged over the whole area of general and personal pr otest. The poet was first owned by a planter named Horton_, who l at er rented him in t he service of a janitor to the University of North Carolina. Horton exploited the academic environment by reading the English classics and composing poems. Often called t he first professionaljlack writer, Horton hired h is poetic skill out to student~ who paid him rather handsomely for composing "personal" poems. His second book of poems, Poetical Works of George M. Horton, the Colored Bard of North Carolina, was published in 1845. �Horton's hopes that he would gain enough money from the sale of his books to secure his freedom were never realized; and he was not freed until Union soldiers arrived in 1865, wben his last volume, I Naked Genius, was published. Horton's themes are not devoted exclusively to protea~ and he has been criti cized, along with Phillis Wheatley, Hammon and Vassa, for writing such lines as those that appear in "On Hearing of the Intenti on of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom": When on life's ocean first I spread my sail, I then implored a mild auspicious gale; And from the slippery strand I took my flight, And sought the peaceful heaven of delight. ••• • ••••••••••• • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Hard was the race to reach the distant goal, The needle oft was shaken from the pole; In such distress who could forbear to weep? Toss'd by the headlong billows of the deep! Horton goes on to say that "Eternal Providence" saved him when he was on the "dusky verge of deep despair" and when "the last beam of hope was almost gone." Yet Horton writes bitterly of slavery as well as lightly of love and humorously of life in general. Influences on his poetry are Byron, Wesleyanfiymnal . ~ stanzas, and other sources~ books tha-t' be bad read. In the '----"" poem from which the stanzas above were taken he pursues a ~ i}M-vf\ A JY rather monotonous iambic tetrameter••*•, But in ...._.. i poeITU ~ ........__.,. "Sls.very" {published in The Liberator, March 29, 1834), he var Q&ll the hymn pattern in the way that Phillis Wheatley does in �her hyon-ins pired works . ~Ihen firs t ef;.'ect is almost ballad-li ke: ~G bos o ,: glowed Hi th h ope, my O I gazed a s froc a ~ountain top On some d lightful pla i n; But oh l how transient was t he scene-'''\ It fled as though it had not been .0 And all r.i:r !10. es 1-1ere vain. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Is it ecause r,j:y nki:1 is black, That tbou should'st ½e so dull and slack, £J And scorn to sot n:e free ? Then l e t .:e has t en t:J t:10 grave, Also eff ective and s~stai c in~ in pouer is "The Slave's Complaint lt ) 3 stanzas with a f ina~ i ndentedJ onewhith .features word refrain) ..,, 11?orever/ ··r::i ic _" mark., colon or exclar:atio ~ his love poems1 and in '' -- -~G is followed by either question o..r .: . :Uorton 1:andles well sor:e of Lo~rnr 1 s :Farewell '' is a le to touch base with that broad and painful nderstand i ng of what it means to say goo Ibyf_,, : I leave n:y parents And all ,r y ere behind ., friends ~ to love resigned~ 'Tis grief to go, ut death to stay: FarewellM I' m g one with love away! In this and oth er pieces Horton makes €6Ud'use of dashes /Y\ l -which ...__., allow him to develop s usp ense and render h is statements more 'l'I �dran:.atic. Because of its various uses, the dash b as arrived as an important ingredient of modern and contemporary )3lack poetry. Contrary to many of bis learned contemporaries and predecessors , .Horton apparently consciously thought of, and worked toward, his freedom. This fact is reflected [both ~ n} his life's work and his poetry. His own position, coupled with .his sanguine delivery of folk wit and e phasis, can be seen in the following stanza froA 'The Slave 11 : Because the brood-aw ~ le~: ; side pig: ) e black, O Whofsable tincture was by nature struck, Were you by justice bound to pull them back □ Arn leave the sandy-colored pi gs to suck? For appraisals and selections of Horton's works see Robinson's anthology, Collier Cobb's An American Man of Letters :t;George t Moses Horton {1886), comments by Barksdale and Kinnamon, Wh itlow's study, Brawley 1 s Negro Genius, Loggins' work, Redding's study, Richard Walser 1 s The Black Poet {1967), Brown's assessmen't_JJean Wagner's Black Poets of the United States {1973) ~(c.hmooci~ ~ )\e.,.\la.!«o.L. ~oc1,.<iq f-.,\ _a,:;;:g: 3-c?At'\ ~ kel\Mo.¥1 'S .:rn V ,s,~1.e am,•Af ro-~e.-, I CW\.S Q €th f rimrieen!h Horton, of course, trails a nd precedes a long line of eeniv~y~7~ orators and poets, many of whom we know very little about today. In fact, comparatively speaking, there is a wide disparity between the readily availabl k s1!gnificant information on l_:::::/ white writers of the period and the lack of vital data on Blacks. We do know t hat the early decades of the century witnessed a developing Christian and political consciousness among Blacks too ff) �and that most northernpac k wr i ters., intellectuals and educators turned their attention t o the educational., physical erncrtrona.L and« J II a.a needs of free and enslaved Blacks. l)o►,tH.v Of these and other matters., ~~ f orter pr ovides ample proof and dis1-, cussion in Early Negro H'ri t i ng .1/-occasional verse was also somewhat of a tradition among ~a ny learned Black~ as was the practice of writing hymns , psal ms and other spiritual songs. One such recorded item is 11 ~p i r i tual Song" by Re ~chard Allen, probably "chant ed or s ung during the delivery of a sermon." Rev internal r hyme by repeating similar sounds in the middle a nd at the end of lines. Varying his meter and using an i rregular end-line rhyme scheme, he expresses the religious fervor t hat consumed many Blacks of the period: Our time is a-flying ., our moments O a-dyi ng, Ue are led to i mprove th em and quic kly iappear, For t he hour when Jesus in I 'power., In glory s a ll come i s now drawing - 1 near., ks there wi ll be shouting., and jI'm not doub ti ng, But crying and screaming for mercy ; in vain: I I �Therefore my dear Brother, let's □ now pray together, That your precious soul may ½e 0 fill 1d with flame. Another s uch example is a "New Year's Anthemn written by :Michae l Fortune and "sung in the African Episcopal Church of . - St. Th omas" on January 1, 1808. Fortune's a nthem is tra ditional in its use of materials from Neth odist hymns. tells t he congregation to d r :P / 11 He Lift up your souls to God on high/ Who, with a tender father's eye Looked down on Afric's helpless raceJ !7 Robert"Y. Sidney composed two anthems ''For the National Jubilee of t he Ab olition of the Slave Trade, January 1st, 1809." "A nth em I" begins: DRY your tears, ye sons of Afric, God has shown his gracious power; He has stopt the horrid traffic, That your country's bosom tore. See through clouds he smiles benignant, See your nation's glory rise; Though your foes may ~ ndignant, All their wrath you may despise. This sta nza is followed by a "Chorus," "S l_!/ and "Recitative." In ."A!1.them II" an abbreviat orm is employed and Sidney drops the solo and ~eeitative/4keeping only 1the chorus: Chorus. Rejoice that you were born to see, �This glorious day, your jubilee. :a-s. Porter includes Sidney also wrote a hymn , hymns by religi ous leaders Pet er 1-Tilliams" Jr . , a nd Willi Hamilton. Both men , usi ng t he English forms, celebrate freedc~1, call for mutual aid ar.:ong Blac ks and preach the virtues of the 1f ff Christian God. Willians praises the "eloquence/Of Wi l berforce" ,\ /I after whom a predominantly_Jlack niversity fwas namedl i n Ohi~. For detailed information on sources for these and similar writings see 1-rrs . Porter's Early 3egro 1'lriting: __.1760~1873. The collection includes two very touching examples of' writings "On Slavery" and "On Freedom" by Qj -year-old boys from the New York African Free School established in 1786. In reading ini,,e, the life a nd works of Daniel A. Payne ...._; ,... (18llh~ 93), one is i nmediately struck by his dedication to the task of upgrading Blac~~ . ~ducator, university president, missionary and poet, Payne Has born in Charleston, South Carolinaj of f ree parents. He was orphaned at 10 years We! - ,. / 11~ apprenticed to a carpenter and then to a tailor. Later trai ned in classical education at t h e lo cal ,Unor' s Moralist Society's s chool, he taught free )5'lac k students for a fee and slaves free of charge at night . Payne ' s travels t ook him to various places (New Orleans , Balt i more, Canada a nd twice to England ~ where he helped expand t he programs of the African Methodist Church. Trained in the Luthera n Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania , he was ordained in 1839: after preaching for several years, he was r:1ade an A. :r.•I.E. µ shop in 1852. In the political and educational spheres., he helped urge Lincoln 103 �(on April 14, 1862) to sign the bill to emancipate slaves in the District of Columbia, and spearheaded the purchase of Wilb erfor ce Universityf serving as its president for @) years. Payne devoted most or his life to the cause of free and enslaved Blacks and to writing poetry and religious history. His Pleasures and Other Miscellaneous Poems was published in Baltimore in 1850. He also wrote books on the history and mission of the A.M.E. Church. ~~pecially valued for its social and intellectual insight into 9 h~century Blacks is Payne's Recollections of Seventy Years)published in 3ashville in 1888. As a poet Payne is erudite and i mitative. Rob i nson 4a•s--z•bl~g,- observes that a major problem with the poetry is "the repe / tition of end ~~topped lines, and his diction, a hybrid of '-- classical and 8 bl1cal vocabularies, can prove distracting to many readers ." # Mu.c or this we can forgi ve , however, when we (OY\-t.,;; ..0.'°¥ pot;t understand ~enry Dumas '.s remark that "a j 1ack poet is a preacher. Certai nl:r a preacherM in :fact or as poet -knows very well the mean't n ~ and need for repetition. convi::ce us of his seriousness. I Yet Payne never fails to -rh-e So hurt was e in~wake of the 1334 South Carolina law that, e.ffective i n 1835, made .,l!'lack literacy :..11egal, Payne ·wrote '' L p (1\; capt or ' s Farewell . h We find h is enbossed co ncer n for students in t hese lines: Ye lads, whom I have taught with sacred zeal, For your hard fate I pangs of sorrow feel; Oh, who shall now your rising tale nts guide, fuere virtues reig~ a nd sacred truths preside ? 11 �revolv i ng moo ns s h o.ll ~ :t.::_/ ' t : ' :e ::::1.:o lau 11 s !I af ter t he dread s1rnt t ue do ors" .:,,: ...,J.tca t~ ..:: f •' :'"' S out:.1 Caro li:ia Blac k::: . EnguJ.i' ed in t bo r oli ,=;i c•t::: a~: . . :.c: r al .LOl~vor of i:::a ny / lack mi nist ers of t 1.1 e p ~ri ocl, t~:o -:=: oc t D. i:d or ator reflects a ge - old conc erns about dece i t a:-:r' r:i:::trust i ~1 suc'h pieces as " r:11"' ~ :,:en ta lk of I.eve ! Bnt f m do ever feel The speec-::-:. :.es ;:; :" apt ' re s uhic'!J its joys rev eal. tl,-. , istalr r., 1- o~re l·.iren J.' '"~ 0 v , i. 1.1. ti -- a,•r ·:, ·-.~ .1.. "' ~ .,. ~ .. J.V . ... v-vt..J , t_,at v i le , that ~-Jbos e bes o:;. ne ' r e Yer f e: t the sacred 0 flame . For insight into Pa:"" ::~ ! .:; lif ..::l a ~d "·10:rk~ one could go to any one of bis "c ons i d rnble n'..1:-.::. er II of ":·Jr tings . Among others, they inc lude The S0i ~i- ,: ..::n-:.;:; :-:ar :r a nd the n etrospecti on of t he Ai'rican He t __ od ist istory of ~ i =:;c or_J a l Ch ur c'h (Baltimor e, 1866) and The th e A. :-r. :s . c~, re:; (::asl'lvi l le , 1866). Josephus R. Coan:. ' s 1 ,35 (P . i'J.M elpb ia) b iographyl S ee also Daniel Alexander Payne , Christian ~d cator , ~ob i nson's comments a nd Brawley's Negro Genius . Unfortunatel~ to o li~tle is kn own of romantic poet .John $ . B ~ ~~J.u.ytan:.ibth:;,...lfa. ~ '~-, . ~ , Boyd., ,.,_especially since 'b.is wor k refle cts genuine g ifts and talents. Boyd's poetic i ~a ges are br illiant, sustained., searing and generally accurate even if they are not always �connected in a way that makes them readily a~ssible. only record of Boyd is made available by C•r • Nesbitt , The Esq., ~eputy/ ecretary and_jegistrar of the Government of the Bahamas. Nesbitt must have recognized the talent and the promis~ a nd he aided Boyd's poetry through publication in London in 1834. Boyd, it seems, was self-taught on New Pro~idence Islan~ where he remained all his life. ft,r !'"' -t ,-.r f Lif n was published in the February issue of the Boston-based Liberator. His poem 16, 1833, His 1834 volume is entitled The Vision/~and other/+Poems, /'i n Blank Verse i by John Boyd/~a man of Colour/. Practically unedited, the manuscript is what Robinson calls a "publishing scramble." Like most of the poets of the perio0yBoyd 1 s work owes debt to :Hilton, the !ible ard classical influences. 11 The Vision/ oe-:-: 1.n _ ank- Vers e 11 is immediately reminiscent of Mil ton's Paradise Lost . Boyd skirts a rhyme scheme but employs a - fairly regular iambic pentameter. ~•• ••• All things considered, his work partially cancels the criticism by Sterling Brown that .Jlack poets lag in their stylistic awareness . s brilliantly with: ought the Moon, pale regent of 0 the sky, Cres ted, an:l filled with lucid Iradiance, Flung her bright gleams across my !lowly couch; "Vision" �And all of h eaven 's fair starry O fir mament (j Deli ghtful shone in ::ues of I glittering light , Reflec t i ng, like to fleecy g old, I the dewy air . In his "•t/i t:101:). 11 Boyd encounters ch a racters of both t h e h eavens 1fJ. and the hells . Hhen the narrator , " 11 dr eame:r~/' joined the trai t1_J Fervent hosannas struck the as 0 tonish' d car, As wh e n i n the 1-:1.idb our of calmest :ni ght, C St ill ness pervadeth tha awa kened Roused by the secret p o ,1 er that lmoves th e deep, It heaves i t s l oud s urge on t h e sounding shore; The "vision " is als o peopled y "grim death and ghastly Sint who ·"lay coiled , l i ke s a ke s i n one huge scaly fold, consider their "inexpiab le doo•. - '- • " M 11 a nd Boyd 's tones are sacred and surreal a nd he asser,bles b arn lessly complex sub ordinate clauses that help build a n exciting l i nguistic 1 criend ~ as i n "Ocea n " . ~ G) lfue n t he fiat of t he most iligl:f ) Thy fountains b rst, afc op ious _y 107 �Thy secret springs, with ample store, Pour'd forth their waves from sh ore to shore 1-lide as the waters roll, oh, wave. ~SIi~ •■ Boyd ' s Hork has yet to be appraised in terms corm_R its i mpor t ance. with Robinson makes brief but significant comments on h is poe t r y •. -- Ann Plato, another romantic poet, is also one for whom there exist t ":!::~-:t:e .& 3 L important factua l dat a. Th is second_)3l ack American female to publish a book almost skirts t h e racial t heme completely. Her Essays:/ I ncluding/ Biograph i es a nd ~-:iscellaneous Pieces, /in/ Prose and Poetry was published i n Hartford in 1841. What little is known of h er comes by WfJ'( of a n i t roduc tion to her book __________..--- by Rev. J .r,1·IC, Pe nni ngton , pastor of the Colored Congregational Church i n Hartf ord, of which she was a member. First of Except .for her "To the ugust, 11 written in celebration of t he 1833 abolition of s l avery in the British West Indies, there are only allusions t o s l avery . Her book also contains essays on reli gion, modi eration, conduct and other conventional t hemes. t hemes are pretty much parallel ed by the 2 ~ poem~ .__. -s ame in her book, wh ich deal with home life, deaths of acquaintances and moral i ssues . "Reflections, Written on Visiting t he Grave of a Ve ner ated Friend" begins: Deep in this grave her bones remain, She's sleeping on, b ereft of pai t@ .,A lOS �The langua ge a nd t b0 ::mbjoc:. ,::a.tter are s toc k.., but "Forget :-re Not," e ach stanza of i:hic. c nc.. s ~-i tl1 t b e t itle, is well h a ndl ed and has fla she s of the ;;rca ci-, r.:cnt of s e lf -contro l t hat Vassa alluded to i n h is versos: ~.1 hen b i rd does Ha it t':1y ab sence lo ng, Nor tend unt o {;, ts r1or~i ng song ; 1/hile th ou ac•t sea r ching stoic pa g e, Or l i steni ng to an a ncie nt sage, ·Those s pi rit cur [!j] a CTournful rage, 3 7orge t ::e ~Tot . Her int eres t i n ora l l iterat ·re and the s torytelli ng tradition -~ is apparent i n "The !Ta ti-:es of A ,: eric~" f1he.ie she as ks: C "Tell me a stor~, f a ther, please," And t h e n I s o.t ·1~c!'l l-: is !r!'lees. Again, as i n her c onter.:pcraries, -:1e fi nd the ini'l.uences of English writers of a pre c edi~;; senera tion or so, the debt to ,J'ib lical l earni ng a nd r.n.: ch i::::i to.t ion . 1 ? or brief critical notes on Hiss Pl?,t o see . . obi r:son's :Sarl7 Black American Poets. Ske it; a l ~rJ b...,·E~Ly nu.Ted IYI .$he t-i~1P."'' :ttl\ri,,b, f.£!.Y}' , (Na.A Anoth er aboliti o:1ist- ni..ister and orator-poetA.El ymas Payson or r Rogers (1814?,v _ 61), i.f c , ""ter tc ac!1 i ng pub lic sch ools i n Rochest er, Ne1•1 York, took Dl ne of Rogers ' students 1 pa stori ng in Newark, New Jersey. '!!~=!!~~• ~ wa s ~ aj W. Logue ~ later become a n i npor t a nt social-religious leader and a _)31shop of t he A. Ii. E . J hurc 1 . .Fugitiv e slave Loguen•s bio grapby (see 'Ne gro Caravan ) a pp eared in 1859, in Syracuse, under the title The Revere nd J . 1 q -r. Lo Slave and as �a Freerr.a n. Known, as were many of the orator-poets, for rec iting his poems orally, Rogers' themes are unashamed l y abolition , Jlack betterment arxl political hypocrisy. Working politically on behalf of Blacks, Rogers appar ently designed The Fugitive Slave Law (Newark, 1855) and Repeal of Missouri Compromise Considered (Newark, 1856) to be read aloud from platform~ LikeJ ~runes w. Whitfield, who cane later, Rogers gave up hope in America's ever giving Blacks a fair deal and • - - - - - - tr-.Gm sai led for A.fr ic where he died ~f ever a - f ew days after hiA· arriva • ~lt n a, His incisi ve no-holJ s - barred J a pproach to the political climate and conditions of the time is seen in "On the Fugitive Slave Law": Lawif What is Law? The wise and sage, Of every clime and every age, In this most cordially unite, That 'tis a rule for doing ri ght. And the ringing cry of the elocutionist can be he ard later in the poem) ·t-1hen, ~ discussing the fugitive bill, he as ks and a nswers: That Bill a law? (I:' the South says so, But Northern fr e~ answer, NoJ Anticipating the fiery and torrential Whitfield (and "ang?;. vo ices " )J Rogers conti nues : Th.at bill is law, doughfaces say; But black men everywhere We'll never yield to its While life shall animate one soul, -== ce ntury �r' At times bi ti ng a nd o·.-orf earL~0 1:· l1ars!1 as a poet, Rogers ---· resounds i n t1Tbe 21.e pea:.. of t:10 ::issouri Compromise Co nsidered t1 with t h ese words: Iv nI wa nt t::e land , '! ·;!ls ? eedom 's cry; And Slaver:· a ns ?Jered, "; o rf_,9 IJ By a ll t h a t ' s sacred , I de clare 5· .zt I' 11 h a v e ,, --; o. nd lawful s h are. The lJor th er ·1 cncc :~ s~::ould g l ow with s h a me To t h ink to ro"'.J .:.c With built-in drar.:a a rx: ca:"ef,~ :.. cut s , ::Zog ers assessed t h e state or t h e nati on duri ng ~ i .s tL.ie . Jr" ,1t\r-tfi:d.v A/.Y Inf\1pz l ins-:~ ttLawZ Whatl\Law?" he purp os ely b egs t~o ~J8S~ io~ i~ order t o wring t h e emoti onal and rhet orical poHer fror-: t _ e ~,ords a nd t o evok e res p onses from a ud i enc es. 2efe~e ~cos to ~o 6 crs can also b e fou nd i n Robinso n I s Ea rly Bla c :r \. . e ic tk ~oe t s ~ $'1 e"' rYlf. r\ S £ n\l!.~1bLe t'11 eTu_. ::Iat hemati cian, ::;oc~ , c 1.1c a tor a nd ..)flack c ommunity worker, ,r Ch arles L. Rea son ( - n -, 0 1 :_ ___N ~ ,....,... , ~ore in J ew York City of ~~cw York African Free S chool.> Haitian parents . where he l a t er r etur~c~ u::: .... ·c: :1--cr of th e all_i5'lac k faculty . See ki ng th e r,:i nL::-1::: r ~: , - -- r,... - '- . i: :.:J.s, ::er r acial reaso ns, forb i dde n f u ll-:. time a tt cnda ~1c e a t t '~~ 7 · ::;ologi c a l Semi na ry of t h e Pr ote ~ tant Ep i s copal C_1 rc~ . ~ve~~ua:: ~, , ~1ev er, be e came eli gi b le ~--0. ~o.: ::.cs a.r:,d .,(e lle ~Z e t tr es (1849 ) a t ,.. th e Mew York C0nt r a l .: ~::c.._, ~ .· ·: : :~r;.r a--: 1ville, Cof rtland. County. for a profes scrsh i :) 5. -~ V' William G. Al le r! a:-id C-cor:;0 n, . there . n ,- s ;o:, rere also on t h e faculty 1 He held \'ari o,,::: od1-'c2.t i or..n : jo1:,s i nclud i ng a pr i nci palship of t:1c I nstitt.1t0 : ..,r' C..;, :..c:i.''"' '--- "t(outh i n Ph iladelph ia Hf �and grammar shcool/ o• 20 in Tew York City poe-r i.·L ile~ -f.. Cordel · a Reas on was an i nte lle ctual a nd ;. Ray was a teacher there. scholar but was not blintl to t be practical needs of Afro-=A. oricans . 1-Ie opposed plans to colonize Blacks, clai:.li ~.; r,. instead t hat they nee~ed to ~ursue v ocational careers _ere in America. Again, not pr i r.1arily a poet , Reason is co ;1petent ve~(,ie"" as a (\~ in "The Spirit Voice)' which opens with: ComeJ rouse ye brothers , rousel a peal now brea ks Prom lo1-1est island to our gallant jlakes: ' Tis sununoning you, ·who in bonds Ih ave lain, To s tand up nanf'ul on the battle I plain, and urges Blacks to fight for freedom and opportunity. The poem (whose comp lete title is "The Spirit Voice or, Liberty Call to the Disfranchised") is indebt ed to the rhyming couple ~ so famous during t h e era and which had been used with great skill by Phillis ":· eatley . It appears in William Si mmons' 1en of 1.!B.rk (Cleveland, 1887) . Reason's work is designe and move ~ Like that of other orator-poets, ;o be read aloud in order to stir le to action . Therefore be exhorts, reinf'orces, demands , warns , admonishes and issues veiled threats . His "spirit voice " (see the idea of African Spirit Fore ) longs for t he time [if when freedom ' s mellow light I �Shall break, and usher in the endless .CJ day, That from Orleans to Pass 1maquoddy I I jBay, Despots no more may earthly homage 1 claim, No slaves exist, to soil Columbia's name. The poem was written in 1841 and shows Reason's poetic abilities etched out under the strain of racism and the countless chores demanded of an educated Black of tbe period. Elsewhere ( ''Freedom") he gave this familiar cry : 0 Freedoml FreedomJ Oh, how oft Thy loving children call on TheeJ In wailings loud and breathings sl,oft, - Beseeching God, thfy face to see. How reminiscent of and "not unlike" the/ pirituals this burst isJ Certainly the stud~nt of this petf)od o0 'lack poetry will ~l$0 want to keep his rhythmic lyres attuned to the )ifiblical and innovative cadences of those ~ lack and unknown bards." sJ,ermo.t> assessments of Reason see Robinson, Brawle~~and Kerlin. For More of Reason's work appears in A Eulogy on the Life and Character of Thomas Clarkson (1847) and in Autographs for Freedom (1854). Anticipating the Afro-American poignancy and humor in this line by Langston Hughes; ( America never was America to me �and this one by Lance Jeffers: ( r) to make me mo~ American than America) James M. Whitfield (1823j~78) voiced some of the most powert ful and angry protest yet heard in.Jlack American poetry when he published Amerio~ ,aod Other.. E0ems, in Suffalo in 18.53. Barber, worker for. flack colonization, poet and pioneer journ,i alist, Whitfield had earlier authored various types of writings: Poems in 1846; "How Long?" (published in Julia Griffith•s . . . Autographs for Freedom in Rochester, 18.53); "Self-Reliance, Delusive Hope, and Ode for the Fourth of July" (in The Liberator, November 18, 18.53); "Linesi Addressed to Mr • .and Mrs. J •f• Holly, on the Death of Their Two Infant Daughters" cj.n Frederick Douglass• Paper, February 29, 18.56); and Emancipation Oration (San Francisco, 1867). Whitfield is known chiefly for America) which was received so favorably that he was . able to leave his barber:,shop and devote full time to making speeches for the abolitionist cause, working for colonization programs and general/ lack developi ment. He had personal contact with both Dou31ass and novelist Martin Delane~ who called the 18.54 National Emigration Convention of Colored Me°.! which Whitfield attended. respected and admired Whitfield. Douglass apparently But the two men differed on the question of colonization and participated in a lively dei bate. Pursuing bis ow~ osition with vigor, Whitfield established the African-American 1fiejp sitory, in 18.58, as a pro colonization propaganda organ. Tho , born in Exeter, New Hampshire; vfuitfield �spent most of bis life in Buffal~ where he barbered and cont ducted@:~ his colonization efforts . He apparently died on his way to look into the possibilities of colonizing f lack Americans in Central America. Delaney had changed his mindJ and the emigration scheme was never realized. Like most of the orator-poets , Whitfield is writing to be heard , listened to and read aloud . Consequently much of bis poetry (though not lacking in religious fervor) reinforces bis ideology and negative views of America. America, the Sweet land of liberty becomes for \fu itfieldl, "Americaj' ( I Tbou b oasted land of liberty, #\ and To thee I sing becomes It is to thee I raise my song, Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong. Like Rogers, Wbi tfield did not believe America was capable of redemption; and, again like bis predecessor, he died onv,~} 9 /1 journell to find something better. The i dea of "giving•· up on'' T ~JL -- ~/ / America would appear thematically in the poetry of/\ later w iters #J ~ . l)o11l- Fenton Jobns on,.Lee, Baraka and some of the Mus lim poets. ,, wn4<"'- e It would also be implicit in the/\expltriat~ --.« writers and artists such as Paul Robeson, Wright, Baldwin, Chester Himes and Katherine Dunham. In a driving iambic pentameter (in couplets), which has all the openings for spontaneous interjections and expletives, ·whitfieldJ in "America, n accuses �the United States of killing the? her and of general hypocrisy. ack sons who fo ught for Here one can see Whitfield a. anticipating~current slogan, which Hayden makes use of i n ""Words in the Mourning Time": /;, Killing people to save, to free them? Though more general, Whitfield continues a similar assault ?" {stating life is hel~} in "The iisanthropisi,'' but tones down I\ I 1n . to a reverent saluteR'To Cinque": - . All hailJ thou@IJ. truly noble chief, D Who scorned to live a cowering slave; Thy name shall stand on history's leaf, £J Amid the mighty ani the brave@,•• Wh.i tfield praises the revolutionary Cinqu~ who "in .freedom's might" t Shall beard the robber in his den; and ••• fire anew each .freeman's heart. Since Whit.field's primary goal is to get a political "message" over, his poetry, as art, leaves some things to be desired. Robinson points out that Hhit.field "is genuinely angry" (despite the influence of Byron} and that the bitterness and .force in his work f fnot to be mistaken for romantic or linguistic cosl , metics. Lastly, we must note that 1-Thitfield expressed concern for global oppression; quite modern in this, he served, more or less, as a chronicler of world turbulence and a harbinger of the direct and emphatic assaults that today's_/lack poets heap upon tyranny. He viewed the "Russian Bear" (reflecting �on European despotism of the mid 180cr's) in bis poem "How Long?": 'I see tbe "Rugged Russian Bear" Lead forth bis slavish hordes, to war Upon tbe right of every State Its own ai'fairs to regulate; To help each despot behind the chain Upon the people's rights again, And crush beneath his ponderous paw All constitutions, rights ar.rl law. Selections of Whitfield's poetry can be found in the Robinson ------ ~ anthology, in Negro Caravan (1941), and in the Barksdale and Kinnamon text. Whitlow discusses ii!SI [ 31 7 7 'lt\.poetry and im l pactJ as dofe Loggins, Brown, Brawley, Wagnerr ..___,,, -&M Rutb '-' Miller ...__, . (Black American Literature, 19?l)f ~ ~ ~ . ~ The most popular)31.ack 19 was Frances E.f·T. , century poet before 1Dunbar Harper (1825 1911), the first .,.$lack American to publish a short story ( "The Two Offers, 11 1859). Born free in Baltimore as Fra nces Ellen Watkins, she was educated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and spent most of her adult life in the cause of antislavery and other types of social reform. She worked in turn for the abolition mo; ement, the Underground Rail~ road, the A. M.E. Church and the Womfn's Christian Temperance ~~ 0 fl.PO ;agas+ According to Dunn (The Black Press )J she"-.c ontributed to news and propaganda publications. Her reform work was slackened by her marriage to Fenton Harper in Cincinnati in 1860. But after his early deat~ in 18641 she resumed her efforts, lecturing in all but two southern states and promoting / lack �self'-help programs. Her fame rested primarily on her Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects ) published in 1854 in Philadelphia. (A. ve~opular volume, it went through twenty editions by l:_874 ~illiam Still's Underground Rail~oad, 1872) • . Her literary activity was stepped up after the Civil War and included Moses, .,K Story of the Nile which went through three editions 7 by ') 1870; a volume entitled Poems came out in l87~ followed by a second edition in 1900; and attempts at prose fictio ~ in~ eluding Southern Sketches (1872, enlarged in 1896) and a novel, Iola LeRoy, published in 1892. ha.s not been located. Her first work, Forest Leave~, Critics generally agree that Mrs. Harper's poetry is not original or brilliant. But she is exciting and comes through with powerful flashes of imagery and statement. Her models are J.'rrs . Hemans, Whittier and Longfellow, and so we find an overwhelming influence from the ballad. In reading her poetry in public, Hrs. Harper was ·able to appeal to what .IC\ Johnson (Q9<.!,!,s~on~) cal-ed a "highly developed sense .Jof sound" in A.fro-Americans (see, again, statements by Rev Allen and Vassa). She apparently knew her limitations, for Robinson tells us that her popularity ••• was not due to the conventional notion of poetic excellence, Mrs. Harper was fully aware 0 of her limitations in that kind of poetry, it was due more to the sentimental, emotion: frei ghted popularity w;; she had gi ven the lines with her disarmingly dramatic voice and gestures and sighs and tears. �~ ntil the Ci vil \far, l!rs. Harper's favorite themes Here . slave ry, its harshness , and tl1e hypocris~es of America. She is careful to place graphic details ·where they will 6 et t h e greatest res 'J.lt, especia.11:" when the poen s are read aloud. An exar.1p le of this is found in 11 T'!.1e Slave I·Iotber rr: Ee is not hers, fo r cruel r.a~ds G) The only '!·rre at~~ of ho seb. old l ove O That bi nds b er breaki ng heart • .~ A. sir:1ilar play on the emotio ns is seen in poer,1s I\ in a Fr ee Land., n "Songs for the People., rr r'Double ta ndard TT (with its stil.,rings of feminis m. ) and "The Slave Auction. n A wonan is not solely in esponsible for her nfall, n she suggests Dou~le Standar~" a ddir..g~ ,-.. TT. And what is wrong in a woman's life 0 In man's canno t be right. Hi gh ly readable and less acade mic i n her use of p oe tic te ch ~ niqt1es a nd v ocabularies, ?-j:,s. Harper is nev-ertheless quite indebted t o t h e pble for ~uch of her i magery a ~d moral message. ~ And she is able to merge and modify the folk and reli gious ~ ~ , ·µ forms in a noem .;J.ke nTruth" wh"ere she opens wi tb a debt to / the/ 4 irituals: " A rock, for ages, stern a nd high, toad frowning ' gainst the earth and sky, I/ And never owed his haughty crest When a ngry sterns around him prest. Horn, springing from the arms of night, _ _ _ ___ ..__ - - - - - - r �Had often bathed h is bro1v with light , G And kissed t:.ie shadows from h is face Ui th tender love a nd gentl-~ grace. Several religious songs are suggested here; but she also loves to return to the theme of wome ~ as she does in "A Double Sta ndard " and "The Slave 1.fother." I n the b allad "Vashti n s he tells of the heroine who dared to disobey her dictator-husba nd . The strength and determination of woma nh ood is expressed i n the last t wo stanzas: She beard again the King's car.wand , 0 And lef't her high estate; Strong in her earnest womanhood, G 0 She calmly met her fate, And left the palace of the King I Proud of her spotless namei- A woman who could b e nd to grief I 1 But would not bow to shame . Certai nly a comprehensive biographical-critical study of Hrs . I' Harper is long over_ due. Selections of her work can be found ~ Negro Caravan, ~ Robinson's in, Kerli n 's critical a nthology book, • ◄ IP I n Mr :H i ller's anthology, • • • Barksdale a nd Kinnamon and in numerous other recent anthologies. Qittipo1 1 e works are critically examined by Loggins, Wagner, Whitlow, Brawley, Brown and Sherman. lJ c.,r l a %wen .t s a rf s Q ' { Like other l"1ri ters, ii ljl) l s;v;H• . g educators and activists of his day, ,,, �,-, George B. Vashon (1822h _, 78) contributed to the influential Anglo-African Hagazine which was published intermittently between 1859 ~ th; end of the Civil Har. Vashon had a goo~ solid educationi in classics and history~ at Oberlin College_, where he received his A.B. in 1844 and M.A. in 1849. ·11;,s~a'T..~~ )mowtlJchiefl'lJ for his "Vincent Og~," which Sterling Brown tells us 11 is the first narrative poem of any length by a Negro poet . ~ I ll Jd !l!ltJ'.!!113 t let Ll!L& ill •• '• 11 ~ 1:i)iiC:S 40 Jwtu1ar · u? r ~ taught school in Pittsburg; i•• 1 '•• 1-Ie~acticed law in Syracuse, served on the faculties of C llege Faustin in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, New York Central College (where he was a colleague of Reason and Allen) and Howard w~shit'\l]o n1 University in ,.p.o.1 where he was a 1 aw professor. Huch of Vashon's poetry reflects debts to his strong education and the influence of Scott and Bvron. in "Vincent 0~ All are seen " ins11ired by the courageo~s (but foolish) efforts of Vincent ', a Haitian mulatto who was 11 entrusted with the message of enfranchisement to the people of mixed blood on the isla nd." The order had corae down from t h e Con vention in France, of :..;hich Hai ti was a colony . disruption in France (due to th0 I nternal evolution, 178~ had echoed to its colonies in t ,. e Caribbea~ ·where O · ' led a short- lived armed upris,ing that cost him his li.fe when be was refused asylum in Spanish Santo Domingo and remanded to the French authorit1.es in Haiti. others, the French had O ' As punishment and a warning to tortured on the whee1=, and severed we..\"e his body into four parts cnv:b 1!11€ which .... bung up in the four ) --- I\. �leading cities of the island. i'ollowers were -either put 0 to death or i mprisoned and t.eir properties coni'iscated. f Vashon was as 1-:i.oved by O •s example as was Whitfield by Cinque•s. talizes In the lengthy poem "Vincent 0~ 11 Vashon immorf o{i in an admixture of classical and piblical language, / {J.,M pl... '1, i'!!}_ .., '4U\ using a pleasant iambic tetrameter w ___.,"2 and 15 e s sf dissonance in his rhyme schem~ which features an alternating a b a b/ a a bb . The style is somewhat reminiscent of Whitfield) who breaks his rhyme scheme (see nAmerica 11 ) ai'ter each group of etght or nine lines "Vincent O " and "A Life-Day" were both printed in Autographs i'or Freedom for 1853. For Vashon, the struggle is ve y much alive; f ? And Oge stands mid this array ,,,,,,- 0 Of matchless beauty, but his brow ( 1) Js brightened not by pleasure's play; 0 He stands unr.ioved-lnay, saddened not, M As doth the lorn and mateless birdj ( and O , dedicated to struggle, presses on. Vashon carefully weaves the graphic details or his protagonist 's execution into the narrative and anticipates the more fire-tipped pens of later?ack °(lynch.:.theme) poetsJ such as .Johnson, !-IcKay, Hughes, Brown and Dodson: Frowning they stand, and in their cold, Silent solemnity, unfold The strong one's triumph o'er the weakl M The awf'ul groan-~the anguished shriek-~ ,v\ "" The unconscious mutterings of despair/\-'\ �The strained eyeball's idiot stare 7~ The hopeless clench~ the quivering frame •. \ \ The martyr's death I IV'\ the despot's shame . The rack-~the tyrant-Lvictim,-Lall M f'<\ I Are gathered in that Judgment Hall . Draw we a veil, for 'tis a sight But fiends can gaze on with delight . Freighted with emotion and terror like much of the work of f\Qne, e') --r1 Harper, and setting the stage for such awesome poe~ as Wrigh t's "Between the w·orld and Me," McKay's "The Lynching," Dunbar's "The. Haunted Oak" and Dodson's "Lament, " Vashon ts relentless , . . narrative signals a new and sustaining power in tbe work of ~ ack poets . Compare, for example, tbe last two lines of the stanza above to McKay's couplet in his sonnet "The Lynching 11 : And little lads , lynchers that were to be, Danced round the dr~ul thing in fiendish glee. ~mKay, however, Vashon cheers up at the end: 7J Thy coming fame, OgeJ is sure; ~ Thy name with that of L:__•ov rture, And all t he noble souls that stood With both of you, i n times of blood, Will live to be the tyrant's fear Compare this ending, if you will, to the ending salute to "General Washington" by ~'Jlll~j 'Wheatley. "A Life-Day" is a a shorter poem, in three parts, and, like "Vincent ~g, is founded �........ on a factual eventl \·the love affair and eventual marriage of a young white man and a light-skinned Black. For selections of Vashon•s works see Autographs for Freedom and Robinson's anthology. For critical discussions see the works of Brown) .a Brawley~~~~«~ . As we prepare to move to the next phase in the develop ment of/ lack poetry, it is important that we tarry long enough to pay brief attention to some of the Creole poets. We select ,.. Pierre Dalcour, Armand Lanusse (1812 _. 67), Victor Sejour {1817~ 7/f74), Nelson Debrosses and Nicol R1quet. Somewhat of an anomaly in Afro-American literature and poetry, these Creole poets are nevertheless i mportant if the complete portrait of this many-sided and complex tradition is to be understood. There is nothing typically American in their poetryAf not even in terms of American imitators of English forms i and they rarely display any racial consciousness or concern for slavery and general i njustice. :Iost were i'luent in speaking and ·writing French1 and from that influence their work derives a ii'\ spicy me lody a nd an ui11bited treatment of romantic love and ·,1Jti~~ • 'I Euch of the work is also in its J !It• d sophisticated se of conve ntions and materials gained from French educati ons. The Creole poets ' works appeared as "tbe first publish ed anthology of }Te~o v9rs0 in America" i n a volume ~ ly!.r_ 13e.m~ -called Les Cenelles wrew Orleans., 1845). I~ addition to French, the Creole poets also ·wrote 1n Spanish, Latin and Greek and were generally fron the wealth~ landt owner class �and 011ned slaves. """'rry o~ wl-ion-1 h~<t 1; t,....!~-~-£!!.§.i.h~ fric.L."!J~.J/YVdr ~ e~e r,o f~, @ G.f"'Y~~t;:hvt;~ . J,,.t. J, -ff_ "1ttf; #l'th.A!"r1.'"~LbvML:,Tttr~•.-S!• A _ u.s~" tl-l,A''er• --~ ;; • About Dalcour little is kn own except that '!:le was b orn t-.;-t't1tpe, of wealthy parents who sent him. to France in the earl:r 1300 s Returni ng to 1Tew Orleans af ter to re c eiv0 a good education . his schooling , he uas unable to ac c ept t :~e racial ten!pe1"' and agai n took up residenc·J i n France. however , he ·1.-1rote a number :-lhile in lTew Orleans, 1 f' poen:s, one of' w:1ich was "Verse e :-Tri tten in t be Albu;.;1 of' :-1B.df 1;10"1.selle." The poen touch i nsl? reli ves t h e "vaulted skies" and "gentle flashes 11 ·t-1hicb, to the poet , are "less love l :,. n 1-:be!'l see n a.;ai nst the lady's eyes i> Beneath their brown lashes. Lanusse, LeJCTenelles editor, contributed to llew Orleans CTreole newspapers L'Union and La Tribune, served ns o. con~ s cripted C8;.;.federate soldier i~ the Civil .Ta~~ n t sor.~e time as pri:-icipa.l of t:1e Catholic School for I nd i gent Orpha!1s o.f Color. He also e~couraged literary a nd ot~er artistic express i on a r.:o nG fell01· artists a nd solic i ted work for Les Cenelles. He eulogized h is brother., _Tu::;1a, i n the poem ''Un Fr! re/Au To :ibeau de Son ?rere, death ~as cut you do-:,1!1. . 11 11 reca.llir!3 t h at "un.fee.ling :2:sew:1ere Lanusse ref'ers to deat'!:-1 ' a s " sor:ie other b and shutti ng :_rour e:reli ds. a :id r.1ore poignan~ i n ':Spigram, 11 11 Sor.1e1-1:-:at naught ier I.anusse s i ves the account o.f / ' a "woman of evil II u::io · wants to · "renounce t he devil• but-\., asks,~ Bef'ore pure grace takes me in h a nd , Sh ouldn't I show my daugh ter how to O get a m n? t ) ( / �e'jonr lived . . ost of his life in France ar:d @ to r ew Orleans~ visits- to his , other. returned Son of a wealthy family, ~e wrote several plays , 21 of which were staged in France and three in new Orleans in the 1850~. se'jour 's literary abilities were praised by _Tapoleon IIIJ and he rubbed shoulders with major French literary personalities of his day . His scope is wide1~ than some of the other Creole poets. ..._ "Le Retour de Nap~onn ( "The Return of Napoleon") is an elegy il!rl,½ ~ulogizing Napoleon, S~jour and a celebration all in one . praises both his and France's triumphs and glories. poem of flowing., graphic exaltation. It is a Opening on the scene of a nsea n that "groans under the burning sun.," he narrates the growt. and collapse of France as a world power: And on and on she swept., an unleashed tempest wild., and France moved on 0 ahead. To more. ••• Yet., hail, 0 All is over. captainZ Hail my 0 consul of proud bearing. Admonishing France to '~·Jeep, France., weep., 11 sfjour reminds the country that "death bas lightning struck the people's giant." Little is known about the personal life of Debrosse ~ which., according to Robinson., "seems in keeping with his Haitian-:: gained experience in Voodoo., aspects of which he practised in New Orleans. 11 In Debrosses' "Le Retour .au Village aux Perlas" ( "Return to the Village of Pearls")., he seems to anticipate what Waring Cuney sees through the "dishwater" in his poem �The Creole poet returns to tbe village to find tbat "Images." / Her spirit dances here a nd there in these enchanting places and to locate I --that flower-bosomed grove again, tbe witness of our secret passion., and too, the cherish ed brook to which my soul would on this day confide its happy memory . A cigarf maker by trade, Riquet lived all of h is life in New Orleans., where he pursued a vi light verses. 0 ous avocation of writing His "Rondeau Redouble/ Aux Fr n* Rondeau/To Candid Friends 11 ) leaves no doubt t ha himself as at least serious i n h is avocation. a French-originated lyrical poem - ot@ , m~s 11 ( "Doub le Riquet saw A r ondeau is or sometimes @, lines. -0 I There are two r hymes throughout the poe~] and the opening phrase is repeated ~~ic& as a refrain. II JI (l The form is remotely reminis ce nt of the blues an:1/ piritual forms of Afro-American poetry . Riquet '.; says that since his "candid friends are calling for a rondeauJ" he and his "T-:L: se • • • must work a wonder." ~ u K - ~ ~ 7§'66), (18? iJ _ ":J,69//tmpiled Other Creole poets included Hichel Saint-Pierre (18? mille ' ry (l8J.4;J,j75l, 7 . i Ques i \L\ JMAJIAlr f an Almanac~ of Laughter) and T·r · Desdunes, wh om,l ahn says , "is ~ - r ·e miniscent of the Senegalese poet Bira o Dio T -""' the poet is to "rhyme in an uncommon way" or he will the name of poetaster-Lfrom our candid friends." M. \ ! �The Creole poets are examined and represented b y selections in E . ?Iaceo Coleman's Creole Voices ('>Iashington, D. C., 1945) 0 and in Robinson's anthology . See also Charles Rouse e's The Jegro and Louisiana (Xavier University Press , 1937), and the l ~ 5h~<Y\• critical selectio~ r y Jahn" in Hughes Lanusse and Lecour also appear and Bontemps !5~The Poetry of the Hegro (1949, 1970) . There wer~iher poets writing and publish ing during this ~ .br-tu,Q h-t ov't' same period . Many pairlP511n~~heir works in single Jlill.,.. editions, and copies of sorae are no longer extant. Brawley refers to a poet known as "Caesar" who allegedly t-trote but whose poetry is not available . are Ea.ria and Harriet Falconar Other poe~ and their collections Poems on Slavery (London, l 788 ); a,,,- James :~ontgomer:r, James Graham, I) E. Benger, Poems on t 1e Abolition oi' the Slave Trade (Londo n, 1809); Anonymous, The Hest I ndies and Other Poer.is (1811); John Bu ll, The Slave and Other Poems (London, 1824); Rev . Hoah /4.1- ,f ; '(l.,..,/ " Y~ :-9 c. Cannon, The Rock of ~-Tisdom ••• To Hh ich Are Added Several Interesting Hymns ( :Hew Yor~-:_,~ ); Anonymous, "The Coni..J.""ilemorative Ureath: ~ n Celebration oi' t h e ::Xtinction of .-legro Slavery in the British Dominions~r London, 1835); Anonymous , Anti-S lavery i-1elodies (Hi nghar.1, :-I assach usetts, 1334); Ge or ge ~-f ui tfield Clark , compiler ., The Liberty Hinstrel ( Ne·w Yor:{, 1844); Ui lliam He lls Brown, Anti-Slavery Harp (Bes te .. , 1349); "A West I ndian, rr Charleston, S outh Carolina: a satiric V noem showin~ that slavery still exists in the country wh ich boasts, above all others, of' being the seat cf' li½ertyl Darkness Brought to ligh t (Londo n, (Derry ., -~ l~ -- - - - ~ ) �New Hampshire.,? 185;,); George H. Clark, Tbe Harp of Freedom (NeH York., 1856); and Abel Cbarles Th omas, Tbe Gospel of Slavery (New York., 1864). In 1860 Blacks represented ~ l4. ·:) o:f the United States population and were 4.,441., 830 strong. The sour tastes left ;:j- ~•L (~\vilW~) by the worst internal socia C?o until t he l960ls Jq "'!'\ andA70fs., the problems o:r caring for rotecting t he soon-to-be-released slaves., the need to develop and stai'f ... educational facilities for Blacks k all engul:fed Afro-Americans in a deluge of h orror and hope. Although it is clear t hat the works of many poets leap the arbitrarily i mposed chronological .(}., boundaries., the tempe~ents., themes, di ctional preferences and limitations discussec, generally hold for most of t~e poetry Despite the surprising successes., and t he of the period. flashe s of brilliance intertwined with mediocrity a nd comedy., therack poet would labor. long to remove nthe image of a :facen that., in the words of Corrothers, "Lietb, like shadow on the wild sweet .flowers. 11 'Ii.a I rn?? w 11 • a 2 s Sil@ 3ra~sUtilrd I pJ iilliliiill?li ain tis tlir fcwug1f11s ii11u11s!1• 1autJ lli' tgf111ilii.01Jt siS "Pfrfsen Ji1•usz111ti2Mi!M@S@Jii a iaa6tath:e � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_06_07 Title A name given to the resource Editors proof, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter III. African Voice in Eclipse: Imitation & Agitation, typed with handwritten edits, p. 70-129 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B.