Slavery During The Harlem Renaissance

As Rudolph Fisher said; “In Harlem, black was white. You had rights that could not be denied you; you had privileges, protected by law.” The Harlem Renaissance is a time when social change happens to the blacks between 1920s and 1930s. This is a time period where blacks had more privileges than anywhere else. Given that this was a renaissance, they also expressed their feelings about how they felt during slavery. To define it, a renaissance is a cultural revival or a rebirth of something. In the Harlem Renaissance blacks were trying to show where they came from and who they had become. This created social change because it defined African American culture and changed the relationships between blacks and whites. The work of creative African

Meta Warrick Fuller, a poet, painter, and sculptor. Harlem Renaissance work, “The Talking Skull” was made in 1939. It showed a man emotional after seeing his friend or family member skull. This artwork displayed a person being sad or depressed during slavery because the family member dying or friends dying. Another artist, James VanDerZee, was a photographer. VanDerZee photograph, “Especially Evening Attire” shows a woman with flowers and no facial emotions. Fuller and VanDerZee had a huge impact of the Harlem Renaissance because of their type of artwork. Music showed the mood of blacks in Harlem. Duke Ellington was a musician during the Renaissance. His song, “Like a Flame That Lights the Gloom,” changed America because it talks about his feelings about slavery and how it affected him. John Coltrane, another musician, created a song titled “Blue Train” in 1958. The song has a relaxing feeling, “You can play a shoestring if you're sincere” (Coltrane). Music changed America by first singing slave songs, of the blues and how they felt during slavery and then finally to Jazz and Hip Hop to express their feelings to the