Imagine Life without a Mother!

Today I read four very powerful poems, two by Harper and two by Greenleaf. Harper was the daughter of two freed African Americans. Her two poems that I read, “The Slave Mother” and “Ethiopia” are both sad poems about the struggles of blacks in the United States. Greenleaf’s poems, “The Hunters of Men” and “The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to her Daughters sold into Southern Bondage”, are both sad as well; both of which are again about blacks struggle in the south. I have decided to focus on Frances Harper’s “The Slave Mother” and particularly on the imagery in the poem. This poem is the essences of what great imagery is. One quote I find particularly incredible is, “She is a mother, pale with fear, her boy clings to her side, and in her kirtle vainly tries, his trembling form to hide…” (Lines 13-16). These lines speak to me because I can literally picture a sad and distraught African American boy clinging to his mother’s side as she is trying to save him from being taken away! Harper’s imagery relating to the fact that she is his mother by blood but not really is very impactful too. As she describes how the boy, “is not hers, although her blood is coursing through his veins!” (Lines 19-20) Harper uses such colorful words to describe the agony that this woman is in I feel as though I am standing next to her and I am watching all of this occur. That feeling is not something I would like to feel every day!

Journal #6

Today I am writing about two stories that are both quite depressing. The first one I read was The Quadroons, written by Lydia Marie Child. This story focused on the Xarifa, the child of a white father and African American mother. Xarifa had a pretty good childhood until she was nine. Her father left her and her mother, Rosalie, to marry a high-class white woman. Though Edward, her father, still loved Rosalie, he could no longer be with her. After he was married, Rosalie died and Edward took Xarifa under his wing. But once her father died, she was heading straight for doom. Though she was well educated and being supported by her father’s widow, she was somehow sold back into slavery (as her mother was the child of slaves). Though she was in love with a white man, there was nothing he could do about it! Xarifa is definitely caught between two cultures because she knows that her mother was black, but her father was of high class and was white. She was privileged as a child and I think that twisted her mind a little bit. Her conflict with society is shown especially in the last section of the story. When she is sold into slavery, she doesn’t know what to do. I wouldn’t know what to do either if I had spent my whole life with “privilege” and now I am to work for someone else

In the second story I read, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, we see a different background story with the same kind of problem. This girl, supposedly Jacobs, is the daughter of mulatto parents, which means that she came from white and black parents. Jacobs lived with her parents, her brother, and her maternal grandmother. After her mistress died, she had high hopes that she would be set free. Unfortunately, those hopes fell short when she was “given” to her mistress’s young niece. After bouncing around for a while, she escaped from her owner, Dr. Flint. Though he died some years later, she still had a hard time with everything, i.e. staying free. Though she had white in her, she always struggled in society because she was part black.

Journal #5

     So today I am writing about William Apess’ “And Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man” and Lydia Sigourney’s “Indian Names”. William Apess was a mixed child with some white and some Native American in him! Although he did not grow up on Indian Territory (he was raised Christian and became a Methodist priest), he did want to know about his culture and heritage of his ancestors. Lydia Sigourney however was a prim and proper young lady from Connecticut; she was all about women’s education. She eventually opened a school for young girls. After reading both of these, one a poem and one a short story, I found that both had an underlying theme. This theme has to do with the injustice and the evils of racism. Apess’ story had to do with how the white man had become so prejudice against the Native Americans. He asked the white man if God had made a mistake in making the Native Americans or blacks, why did he make so many of them? In Sigourney’s poem, she talks about how the American’s have obliterated the Native American race. She discusses how there are still signs that life has been there but that it no longer exists. Sigourney states, “Ye say, their cone-like cabins, that clustered o’er the vale, have fled away like withered leaves before the autumn gale…” (17-19). This line really speaks to me because it shows that the Native Americans were there. People did see their teepees in the valleys and on the hills of their land. And now they have all seemed to disappear. She also wrote the poem in the past tense which is something that stand out to me.

In all, both of these writings discuss how the Native American society is being “tortured”. They have been wiped out of their homes, and have been people are prejudice towards them because of the color of their skin. Furthermore, these two pieces show how the Indian relocation and almost annihilation affected people.

"Journal 4"

Today I am writing a response to Samantha Welch's "The Wife" blog. Hi Samantha! I completely agree with what you are saying here! This piece really spoke to me for the fact that Irving did make marriage one of comfort not of convience. The way that most people saw marriage in this time was one of economic decision and materialism. It is crazy for me to think that people used to get married for the purpose of being financially stable. But then I got to thinking that people still do this today! Anyway I really enjoyed reading your blog and I thought your use of diction in the blog really set it apart from the others. I am not sure how to post this on your wall but I will let you know that I did respond to your blog and you will be able to read this!

JOURNAL #3

Washington Irving’s short story, “The Wife”, is a period short story about wives, children, and family. It is a pretty good representation of how men thought of women during the time. In his short story, Irving describes how women should act and be with their husbands. At the beginning of the story, Irving describes the woman as “the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours…” (526). Later in the story, Irving begins to discuss a tale of a friend of his and his wife and their journey from riches to rags. This story 100% shows how men thought of women. This poor man had to lose everything and his wife stood by him through it all, not changing her kind heart or resenting him. But every time this friend would talk of her, he would feel bad for her and say she doesn’t understand what is coming next. The husband is underestimating the strength of his wife, and probably all women in general! This story also shows how important money was in this time. The man described by Irving was clearly very wealthy. And then suddenly, all was taken from him. He lost his house, I am assuming his job, and he had to break the news to his wife that they would soon be “beggars”. It just proves that this time period was all about where you were on the social level and how much money you had to show off!

Journal #2

So today I’m writing about how this reading relates to what we have talked about in class. Well, the reading from the introduction is about the Declaration of Independence and other major writings that took place during this time and how they were published. While reading about the Declaration of Independence and how it was originally just printed out and distributed through the colonies. This made me think of the presentation we had in class about Christopher Columbus. He wrote this very in depth letter to the monarchs about his voyage. You would think this would be printed out and used in a newspaper but here is the catch, they didn’t have newspapers. So, the monarchs did as the colonist did later and printed it out and dispersed it throughout the cities, just on normal paper like it was a letter to anyone. This is seriously crazy to me to think about something so important not getting the recognition it deserves. It wasn’t until Benjamin Franklin rolled around that there was even a thought of a newspaper. The first one, the Pennsylvania Gazette, was established in the 1750’s. I could not imagine life without some way to mass produce the news. I can’t even imagine the world without the internet let alone a newspaper. You start to realize what we take for granted on an everyday basis.