Genre Blog Post: Poetry (The Lynching)

The poem that I chose to talk about is “The Lynching,” by Claude McKay. I am choosing this because we’ve recently read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” in class and will be moving onto “Beloved,” soon. This poem was written during the Harlem Renassaince by a man who was well known for writing poems that challenge white power and the racism and violence that African Americans endured during that time period. The poem paints a disturbing picture of a lynching and tells of the darkest, saddest elements of humanity at the time. The themes that are evident in this play are racism, violence, religion, slavery and passing on of traditions.

                These themes are ones we’ve talked about in class but also ones that I’ve talked about in the past in other classes. I recall learning about slavery and racism for years and one line from this poem that I can relate to my previous knowledge is, “All night a bright and solitary star/(Perchance the one that ever guided him,/ Yet gave him up at last to Fate’s wild whim,” (line 5, pg. 927). It’s to my knowledge that slaves from the South that wanted to run away and escape their masters followed the North Star. I believe we briefly talked about that in American Lit and that’s where that reference comes from. Another one that really breaks my heart is, “The women thronged to look, but never a one/ Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue,” (line 11, pg. 927). This touches on slavery, violence and racism because it’s saying that these women didn’t feel any compassion for the man being lynched but they also found joy in it and that’s just sickening.

                I used a couple quotes but I came to understand them better when knowing the time period that the poem was written. Just knowing that it’s author is a black man who grew up during the time of racism and the Harlem Renaissance I knew it was going to be a push back against slavery and also a way to show the reality of what African Americans went through during this time. It’s very realistic to what these people had to go through. It’s also written in a sort of Southern Lit context because you know right away by the words being used, such as “lad” and “o’er” and “lynching” and the dialect that it’s either from a southern person or it takes place in the South.

                Connecting this poem to the class and the contexts that we’ve been learning, like Southern Literature and the Harlem Renaissance, has helped me better understand and interpret it. I now know that the author, Claude McKay was writing a series of poems to get back at and challenge white power, along with educate readers on what went on during the times of slavery. I also knew right away that it was going to be about this, not just by the name and certain words included in the poem, but also by using my previous knowledge about the issue. Knowing these contexts will allow me to look at other poems just like it and be able to tell if it’s written with a Southern Lit context. 

Genre Blog Post: Drama

Literary Analysis

                My theme, runaway slaves, plays a big part in the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” in a few ways. For one, the book was published right around the time the Fugitive Slave Law came into play. This law made it illegal for white people to assist slaves in running away. Prison time and fines were the punishment for feeding, sheltering and aiding any runaway slave. In the book, there are people who against this anyway.

I think a big reason why this book was written was to fight back against the law. There are so many instances where comments are made and I think that’s Stowe’s way of pushing back and saying her own opinion about it. When Mrs. Bird said "You ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures! It's a shameful, wicked, abominable law and I'll break it, for one, the first time i get a change; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can't give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have veen abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!" I believe that’s partly the opinion of Stowe (72). There were people out there that noticed the immorality of slavery and they wanted to help in any way possible.

During the book, there are many instances where slaves try to run away from their masters. For example, Eliza and Harry, George, as well as the girls at the end of the book. During this period of history, it happened all the time. The lives that these poor people lived were just so terrible that they’d rather risk running away and possibly getting caught than sticking around. This says a lot, now knowing the type of torture they’d endure if they were caught. Take George for example. He was leaving his wife and son behind and running away to Canada because he couldn’t handle the brutality coming from his master any longer.

It was rumored that if a slave could pass the state lines into a free state, like Ohio which is used in the book, slaves could find people like the Quakers to help them make their way into Canada where they could become free men and women. This became a promising detail in the minds of slaves who were ready to make a run for it.

Overall, I think the topic of runaway slaves plays a big role in the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” because it was something happening all the time and with the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, it was clearly a hot topic going through everyone’s minds.

                 

                

Critical Commentary

The article that I chose to talk about is Robert S. Levine’s, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Frederick Douglass’ Paper: An Analysis of Reception,” on page 562. I chose this article because my theme is about runaway slaves and this article mentions the Fugitive Slave Laws and Frederick Douglass and I thought that directly applies to the book and my theme.

In this article, one main point is how Frederick Douglass was a powerful black abolitionist during his time and that he worked really hard to get rid of the Fugitive Slave Law. The section of the article points out Douglass’ work, how he created the Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and some of his views towards slavery.

In order to better understand this article and how Frederick Douglass relates to my theme, I did a little bit of digging as well as using some of my own background knowledge. Frederick Douglass was a black man who was a former slave, who was also an abolitionist, working hard to get rid of the Fugitive Slave Act as well as abolish slavery completely. The Fugitive Slave Law was a law created to punish anyone who helped runaway slaves in any way. A person could face prison time as well as fines if they sheltered, fed or helped any slaves escape. It also gave police the ability to arrest any suspected runaway slave right on the spot. Douglass felt that slavery had no rightful existence anywhere and that slaves never should have seen such a horrible enactment like this law. He was one of the main abolitionists to lead the fight against the law.

I feel like this connects to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, more specifically with my theme in a few ways. One way is that in one part of the book, many slave hunters were out looking for these runaway slaves, knowing full well that they’d get a reward for returning them to their masters. Another way it connects to the book is that when Eliza meets the Quakers and Mr. Bird, the Fugitive Slave Law is actually brought up and how it’s in the making. Mr. Bird’s wife makes note that she will not follow it and that if a slave showed up at her door, she would still help them out. This is exactly what happens and they end up helping Eliza and her Harry. They, along with many other people in the book and just during this time period in general, were willing to accept the consequences because they knew that helping these slaves was the right thing to do. 

Reader Response

After reading the reviews of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on several different websites I have come to the conclusion that many people believe this to be a great book that everyone should’ve read in high school or college at some point. There were many that felt bad reading this and wished that they could change the way our history was. There were also many that claimed it was a hard read for other reasons like the dialogue, the way Stowe built the characters or all in all they just hated the book.

On the website, Goodreads, the majority of reviews that I read talked about what they would’ve done if they lived during this period of time and how they wished to believe that they would be the ones to stand up and say “no, slavery is wrong.” One quote from someone’s review, “This book lies so heavy on my heart. There is one thing in our country's history that bothers me the most and that is slavery. This book was very hard for me to listen to. I can't wrap my mind around someone treating another person like dogs because of the color of their skin. There were many times that I wanted to smack several people for the things they said. I would like to believe if I had lived during times of slavery I would be one of the people who helped free slaves and stand up for their rights. I don't have time for hatred and it saddens me when people are abused.” This was a topic many people talked about.

I completely agree with this comment because it really upsets me to think that my fellow Americans during this time were completely for buying other human beings just because they had a different color of skin and they felt they were superior to them because of it.

On Barnes and Noble, there were many people talking about how Stowe applied religion to the book. It was mentioned how Tom was Christ-like and how he was a good man because even in his toughest time, he was willing to forgive those who had done him wrong. One comment I read was “I would recommend this book to everyone and anyone because it teaches you the morals of life and that no matter what always keep faith because Tom never lost hope and he found the light in the most dimmest moments because he knew that God was always on his side protecting him.” There was a lot of talk about the morals of characters in the book.

I agree with this websites reviews because I also feel like Uncle Tom was a good Christian man. I am not religious at all but I know enough to notice how Tom was always forgiving and even when he was being beaten to death he was praying for the men. He was a truly selfless man.

Lastly, from Amazon, I found that a lot of these reviews are about the harsh reality behind the content of the book. Some commented on how slavery was a thing, it happened, and now we must all accept it and learn about it and learn from it. There were also statements made about how even though this book was written before the Civil War, there are many aspects in the book that we can learn from today. One reviewer said “This story written so very long ago, so many of the situations and comments were topical and relevant to the current event of the time it was written, and yet this story still has something valuable to say to people living in our modern world.”

I also agree with the findings of this website. I believe that I learned a great deal from this book even though it is written about something I never dealt with and it was written so long ago. It taught me how I can forgive people when they do me wrong because that makes me the better person. It taught me that there were some who justified slavery and what was happening to slaves everyday, including the church at one point because there were “good slaveholders.” This book truly has taught me quite a bit.

Textual Background and Context

The theme that I chose to work with is runaway slaves and for this blog post I chose the pictures on page 420 and 421 because I felt it fit perfectly with my theme. These pictures are torturing devices used on slaves back in the day when they would run away from their masters. I did some research to find out what exactly each device did so I could explain it a little better.

The first picture on 420, according to the caption underneath it, is a cotton screw typically used for packing cotton. The slave will be tied to the right side a horse will be hooked up to turn it. It pulls the slave up into the air and they just dangle by their hands. Often, masters would put the slave into that bottom box (labeled letter “d” in the picture) and leave them to sit there for any length of time.

     This is the picture from page 421 and it contains a mask, a collar, shackles and spurs. These were all used in restraining slaves when they were bad or would run away. This collar had spikes that would go into the collar and poke the necks of the slaves. The purpose of it was to make work difficult and to make it even more difficult for them to run away. It wouldn’t allow them to run into the woods because the spikes would get stuck on trees or other things and it made it impossible to lay down or lean up against something to rest. The mask was used on slaves to prevent them from trying to kill themselves. Oftentimes when slaves were so miserable that they’d run away but got caught, they’d try to eat and swallow dirt to suffocate themselves. This mask made that impossible because there was a metal plate that went into the mouth and would press the tongue down, not allowing even saliva to be swallowed.

During this time, slaves that were unhappy would try to escape their hell by running away into the woods or through town or however else they’d escape. Once caught, these methods of torture were used often as well as many others such as thumbscrews to punish them. These pictures directly apply to my theme of runaway slaves from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. There were many slaves in this book that ran away and just thinking about these devices possibly being used on poor Eliza or George makes me sad. I’m sure Mr. Shelby wouldn’t have used these methods but there definitely were other slaveholders out there that did use them and wouldn’t think twice about it.