Giving Them A Voice

The authors of our secondary readings this week, Hannah More (photo one), Anna Laetitia Aiken Barbauld (photo two), and William Cowper (photo three), all showed a compassion for a group of marginalized people that had no voice in their society. The compassion and understanding found in these poems impressed me very much.

Cowper's poem, The Negro's Complaint, shows the strength of the slaves as well as the pain they suffered. His poem opens with the acknowledgement that the whites may own the bodies of the slaves but they did not possess their minds: "But, though slave they have enrolled me,/Minds are never to be sold." Cowper would admire the slaves ability to be able to keep his wits about him when everything else in his world is turned upside down because, as indicated in the introductory bio, Cowper himself had trouble keeping things together.

The authors of the these poems also question how God could allow such cruelty. The questioning of God, perhaps even his existence, would be a risky thing for these authors. It is made clear in these poems that the authors want their readers to see the more human side of slaves. In the poems the authors show the slaves have families, pride in their homeland, and feelings. The authors point out, the only difference between the slave and the whites is the color of their skins.

All of the readings this week were emotionally charged and at times upsetting. It is easy for us to think that this is something that happened a long time ago and a thing of the past but unfortunately, there still are many people who are enslaved, abused, marginalized, and silenced in the world today. The writers we have looked at this week took it upon themselves to speak out for so many that did not have a voice of their own and I wonder if today there are still people out there speaking out for those who cannot - I certainly hope so.