Frances Harper (1825-1911) was an African-American poet
who was involved in the movement to abolish slavery. Her poem "Bury Me in a Free Land"
is clearly an anti-slavery statement.
The speaker in the
poem says that she is willing to be buried anywhere, even among "earth's humblest
graves," as long as she is not buried "in a land where men are
slaves."
The speaker describes some of the horrors of
slavery: lashings, "babes torn from [their mother's] breast," bloodhounds seeking
fugitives, and young girls being sold "from their mother's arms...for their youthful
charms."
The speaker says that she could not rest in a
place where such things take place; if she saw them from her eternal resting-place, her
"eye would flash with a mournful flame, / [Her] death-pale cheek [would] grow red with
shame."
Similar to the outlook of many slaves, the speaker
does not see any practical solution to the slavery problem. Rather, she seeks refuge
from the problem in the afterlife.
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