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The Slave's Dream By Henry W. Longfellow

698 Words3 Pages

In the poem, “The Slave’s Dream”, by Henry W. Longfellow, Longfellow portrays the dreams of a slave. This slave dreams about his Native Land, his family, and his life before slavery. Additionally, as the poem unfolds and ends, it is clear that these memories of his home and family resurface after he collapses and as he drifts from the land of dreams to death. Furthermore, the slave is dreaming about not only being with his family in his Native Land, but also being completely free from the bonds of slavery one way or another. At first, if no title was given to the poem, one could assume the poem is about a farmer, perhaps taking a rest after some labor harvesting rice in the fields. “[U]ngathered rice” is indicative that his task is incomplete, and the phrase “sickle in his hand” alludes to the fact that this rest may be unintentional. It is also clear that the day is hot as he is shirtless and his hair is matted most likely form sweat. Moreover, the line “shadow of sleep” indicates that he actually is sleeping, and dreaming of his …show more content…

The mention of the “Niger river” clearly places his home somewhere in western Africa, and his longing for his home country becomes even more nostalgic as he did not leave his home by choice. Additionally, it is evident that he was a man of stature because he dreams of being “[o]nce more a king.” In his dream, this man is able to relive his life before slavery and it is so real to him that he hears the “tinkling caravans” coming down the road through the mountains. The man’s dream then continues and includes his family in the third stanza of the poem. His longing for his “dark-eyed queen” and his children is so intense that a “tear burst” from his eye lid and falls to the sand on which he sleeps (Rosen, 42). Furthermore, his dream indicates that he is longing for compassion and love, something that he as a slave does not get from his

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In Frederick Douglass’ passage written in to take place in New York in 1838, he uses emotion, and literary devices to convey his state of mind. He starts with persuading the reader to imagine the complexity of being a victim to slavery and escaping. With a cheerful emersion from the deeps of slavery to the openness of freedom. “I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions”. “I felt as one may imagen an unarmed mariner”.

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The Detriments of Slavery In Narrative, Frederick Douglass describes his personal experience as a slave and how slavery is dehumanizing. As Douglass strives for freedom from slavery, both mentally and physically, he explains each of his masters and how they change throughout their lives of being slave holders. Douglas argues that slavery is not only physically and mentally detrimental to the slave but additionally, the slave owner. Both slave and slave holders suffer physically from slavery. For a slave, physical suffering is due to lack of necessities or being treated harshly.

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Douglass describes the harsh conditions slaves felt through extensive descriptions of their lifestyle. One example of these abhorrent conditions Douglass describes is when he reveals to the reader how slaves were given limited clothing for the year. He mentions how all the clothing that was allocated for the year for slaves “could not have cost them more than seven dollars,” and in the case of children who outgrew their clothes, they were forced to be “naked until the next allowance-day.” In addition to limited clothing, repeated separation forced numerous hardships on slaves.

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This mentality ultimately made him a slave to his own

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Never giving up and never accepting defeat is what it means to be indefatigable. Frederick Douglass is a prime example of someone who is indefatigable. Despite his hardships Frederick Douglass never gave up. Indefatigability defines My Bondage and My Freedom because Douglass never accepted defeat in his goal to learn to read.

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In the speech “What to the American Slave is Your 4th of July” by Frederick Douglass, the idea of “us vs. them” is frequently displayed in Douglass’s choice of diction to disassociate the slaves from the celebrations of the white people on Independence Day . “What have I to do with your national independence?” inquired Douglass of the white bodies in his crowd. By specifying the 4th of July as being [theirs], Douglass emphasizes that the holiday is for white people and not the slaves. A division is therefore drawn between the black slaves and the white community on this day. Douglass asserts that natural rights, “justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence,” are ones “shared by you, not by me.”

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In his talk, Frederick Douglass describes the steps he took to teach himself to read and write. His master and mistress refused him a formal education, so he had to rely on the kindness of strangers and other slaves to educate him. When he saw white children learning, he secretly borrowed books and newspapers to teach himself. He practiced memorizing words and writing them on dirt and later on with charcoal on a wall. Douglas attaches great importance to his literacy and considers it the key to his freedom.

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