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Using An African Slave Essay

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Lisa-Marie Van Wyk 56438176 ENG 1501 Assignment 1 553290 Question 1: The voice depicted in this poem is that of an African slave who wants to find closure about slavery through questioning the humanity of his imprisoner as well as through questioning certain religious aspects. The significance of using an African slave as a choice of narrator is to provoke emotion with the readers of the poem. It allows the reader to sympathize and to feel one with the slave. It also allows the reader to see the victim’s point of view, therefore bringing an emotional attachment to the victim as well as to the poem. Question 2: The personification in the third stanza is: “Sighs must fan it, tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil.” (line 19 & …show more content…

“What are England’s rights, I ask, Me from my delights to sever, Me to torture, me to task?” (line 10, 11 & 12) The speaker uses appeals to logic to undermine slavery and the slave trade by stating that one cannot label a person because of their skin colour. “Fleecy locks and black complexion cannot forfeit nature’s claim; Skins may differ, but affection dwells in black and white the same.” (line 13, 14, 15, & 16) The speaker uses appeal to emotion to undermine slavery and the slave trade by mentioning that all people have feelings, “Skins may differ, but affection dwells in black and white the same.”(line 15 & 16), by asking why God created these circumstances “Why did all-creating Nature make the plant for which we toil?”(line 17 &18), and by mentioning how hard the slaves are working to provide profit for these owners. “Sighs must fan it, tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil.”(line 19 & 20) Question …show more content…

The speaker uses words like “treasure” and “gold” to explain profit, “neck chains”, “forced” and torture” to explain slavery and “black” and “white” for racism. The speaker links racism, slavery and profit throughout the poem by describing that the captors had them “Forc’d from home and all its pleasures”(line 1), “paid my price in paltry gold”(line 6) and that “Skins may differ, but affection dwells in black and white the same” (line 15 &

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Stewart began with a casual use of irony in the form of sarcasm to mock the perspective of white slave owners who relegate work to their black slaves who “were lazy and idle” even though the lifestyle which their black slaves sustain allows the laziness and idleness of the slave owners themselves. Her use of figurative language, which appealed to pathos, emphasized the long toil for freedom which likens the slaves’ tired spirit to their tired bodies which the white abolitionists have never experienced: “I reply to it, the whites have so long and proudly proclaimed the theme of equal rights and privileges, that our souls have caught the flame also, ragged as we are.” Although the white abolitionists preach equality and privilege for all, the

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In the introduction of the essay, Davis states “This book is about how the threads of slavery were woven deeply into almost every aspect of American society for centuries. It is about how important slavery was to the nation’s birth and growth and to the men who led the country for so long. It is about wealth and political power and untold misery” (xii). He supports his topic with the five stories of the black people enslaved by American heroes that he researched well. Within the stories, he appeals to logic and emotion.

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After building up facts he turns the emotions felt to show how unfair slavery was. He quotes a part of the Declaration of Independence but then directly follows it with, “ but, sir, how pitiable is it to reflect… of my brethren under a groaning captivity, and cruel oppression” (9). Referring back to his heritage makes his argument stronger because it is more personal than it would be from a non African American. He then attempts to switch their perspective by quoting the Bible. The Americans were very religious people so

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7) since they “are called men, and of course are, and ought to be free” (pg. 7), but except blacks who are made to serve the whites and their children forever. For instance, he believed that present-day blacks are treated worse than the Egyptians were long ago because Africans are treated less than human and are chained up like beasts. He continued to mention intermarriage between any white person and black person that if he ever saw that happen he believed even in the marriage they would still be a slave to their partner. However, in Article II, he speaks about the ignorance of his brothers and how the reason the whites still have a hold on them is because of this. That they aren’t working together to fight against their masters that “the reason our natural enemies are enabled to keep their feet on our throats” (pg. 20) is because of the disunity among them.

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We see an example of this quote ” I have no squeamish sensitiveness upon the subject of society, nor morbid sympathy for the slaves.” This quote shows the David Wilmots view where he expresses that he wants blacks and whites to be equal. This shows a need to reunite the nation and how it is a cause for the growing opposition of

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The poem allows for a deeper understanding through the poem’s imagery. Lines such as “Poison with the falling dews, where the sicky sunbeams glare…” further Douglass’ description of the heartless persona of slavery. Various cases of anaphora can also be found throughout the passage found with “she was nevertheless left a slave--a slave for life--a slave in the hand of strangers…” and “at this time, this most needful time, the time for the

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In Equiano's personal slave narrative, "The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African", Equiano flips the idea that the African people are backwards and barbaric, thus ripe for slavery, by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that it is truly the white people who are backwards and barbaric through their own hypocrisy. This reversal that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people exists as a misconception and makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish slavery and any inequality present. On page seventy-eight, Equiano uses first person pronouns like 'I', 'my', and 'me' to separate himself from the other African people and whites around him. This separation that Equiano creates demonstrates his exceptionalism as an African slave.

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Both the fugitive slave advertisement and the assembly, are disgusted about equality and the freedom of all slaves. This is the evidence given of the way slavery being practiced differently in England, in the

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He creates powerful imagery to depict the treacherous treatment slaves are enduring that floods the audience with shame. He provides them with a chance to recall their moral standards and compare them to slavery. He questions them to evoke the truth that slavery is never justifiable. The denouement of his speech is that it is patent to his audience that celebrating freedom with slavery existing is atrocious and want to eradicate

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With all that time for oneself, slaves often contemplated their lives in the miles of woods that acted as their chamber of reflection. The long walks through the woods and the singing done by slaves on these walks are representative of tools used by slaves to cope with their abuse and to express their suppressed negative

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This semester, I was exposed to a wide array of speakers who presented information about the ways in which they had portrayed God within the realm of their disciplines, and how they had seen others do it as well throughout the ages. Some commons themes present within each of the respective disciplines were the shared history, and impact of society on the ways each group portrayed God. One cannot speak of the history of culture in the Western World without first discussing the reasons why increases in culture generally occur and the effect that the money has had on such developments. Cultural landmarks, pieces, and figures are the result of investments of wealth for either a personal or communal gain. With many of the major cultural objects

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These songs were far from joyful, they would sing “…the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone…” and these songs would “… [breathe] the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish.” (29). Douglass argues against the positive image of slavery that portrayed slaves to be

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The aspects of slavery are shown in the last three lines where she says, “Their color is a diabolic dye.” (Wheatley) In this line the fact that she is comparing the color black to the demons’ color shows that most probably she is ashamed of her race or it could be that she is trying to make the White American believe her and go on there side just so that she could publish her book. However, if we interpret it in other ways, the way she uses the words “diabolic dye” could be referring the black that the white think of as devils and objects. The fact that they are dark skinned the Whites think of them as the cursed community.

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The poem is constructed into seven stanzas, organized in iambic pentameter containing a rhythm of “ababcdcd”, throughout the rhythm of the poem comes reflection to the emotions of the speaker whom is a slave. In one stanza the slave uses his curiosity to ask god why cotton plants were made (the slaves mostly worked through picking cotton plants). “Why did all-creating nature Make the plant for which we toil? and how horrible it is for anyone to be a slave, Think, ye masters iron-hearted... How many back have smarted For the

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How big of impact could slavery have done to Africa at least that’s what they said? The slave trade had huge and horrible impact on Africa because it resulted in a tremendous loss of life, Africa has not developed economically as a result of the Slave trade, and Africa still suffers and is unable to provide food and water for its people. Africa had a huge loss of people but to be exact “nearly 90 percent of the Africans in these two major regions came from only four zones in Africa. ”(“The Transatlantic Slave Trade”, para 48) all had to go even against their will 10 million enslaved men, women, and children from West and East Africa to North Africa, the Middle East, and India.

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