| "The
Task" |
| I
would not have a slave to till my ground, |
| To
carry me, to fan me while I sleep, |
| And
tremble when I wake, for all the wealth |
| That
sinews bought and sold have earned. |
| No:
dear as freedom is, and in my heart's |
| Just
estimation prized above all price, |
| I
had much rather be myself the slave |
| And
wear the bonds than fasten them on him. |
| We
have no slaves at home: then why abroad? |
| And
they themselves, once ferried o'er the wave |
| That
parts us, are emancipate and loosed. |
| Slaves
cannot breathe in England; if their lungs |
| Receive
our air, that moment they are free: |
| They
touch our country and their shackles fall. |
| That's
noble, and bespeaks a nation proud |
| And
jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, |
| And
let it circulate through every vein |
| Of
all your empire; that where Britain's power |
| Is
felt, mankind may feel her mercy too. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Cowper's poetry
is very telling not only about his sentiments, but the changing political
climate in England. He was very well respected for his religious poems,
but "The Task," a book, was quite possibly the most influential
in humanitarian reforms (96). |
| In saying
that he would rather be a slave than an owner, Cowper drives his point
that owning slaves is immoral in a very unique way. His ability to
connect to the reader through simple language make his poetry accessible
to any person, unlike Sancho and Cugoano. Cowper seems to have written
for the common man, suggesting that he was aware of the increasing
influence of the middle class on England's social policies. |
|
| Elizabeth's
poem looks at slavery from both two perspectives: violence and gender.
She suggests that a person cannot be Christian who beats another, and she
takes on a feminist view when she says, "The female's modest pride."
But, this poem does not only comment on slavery. It is also a commentary
on the status of women in England during the 18th century. It addresses
the injustices of a sexist society and appeals to men on religious
grounds. Thus, Elizabeth's poetry addressed slavery not only in terms of
African slavery, but also in terms of gender inequalities. |
| "On
the Flogging of Women" |
| Bear'st
thou a man's, a Christian name? |
| If
not for pity, yet for shame, |
| Oh
fling the scourge wide; |
| The
tender form may writhe and bleed, |
| But
deeper cuts thy barbarous deed |
| The
female's modest pride. |
|
|
|
|
| "The
Slaves' Address to British Ladies" |
| Think,
how naught but death can sever |
| Your
lov'd children from your hold; |
| Still
alive- but lost forever |
| Ours
are parted, bought and sold! |
|
|
|
|
Watts
takes on a unique voice in her poem as a black woman to white English women.
She appeals to the motherly sentimentality of women. In doing so, she creates
a connection between black and white women based on one characteristic they
have in common: having children. This poem, like Elizabeth's, looks at slavery
from a gendered perspective, and her work would have found good use by women
such as Wollstonecraft, who urged women to boycott slave-grown products.
|
