A Call to Action

Compelling, vivid, and rather violent images of despair and mistreatment were the calls to action that abolitionist authors like John Whittier and Frances Harper incorporated in their poems during the antislavery crusade. Most memorable were the images in "The Slave Mother" by Harper, in which the author portrayed the separation of mother in a tormenting fashion: "He is not hers, although she bore for him a mother's pains; He is not hers, although her blood is coursing through his veins" (17-20). In modern days and in the past, it is assumed that the relationship between mother and child quintessential to development - a relationship that should not be tampered with. Yet, when a slave master is described as standing in the way of that bond, the reader must feel immense sympathy for the situation and is therefore called to action to improve standards in the racially divided United States. Likewise, in her other poem entitled "Ethiopia," the image of laughing children to startle readers. The only difference, though, is that the image of children in "Ethiopia" is a more positive one, as "'Neath sheltering vines and stately palms shall laughing children play, and aged sires with joyous psalms shall gladden every day" represents the fact that, although slave children are stuck in an oppressive state, the redress of God will bring light to the lives of the children (17-20). Although this perspective may not startle readers because it does not physically torment, it shows that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and with the work of crusaders, that redress of God will show through sooner. Lastly, in "The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to Her Daughters" by Whittier, daughters are "sold and gone" to dark, lonesome, gloomy homes where "There no mother's eye is near them, there no mother's ear can hear them; Never, when the torturing lash seams their back with many a gash, shall their mother's kindness bless them, or a mother's arms caress them" (15-20). Not only does the whipping images startle a reader, but the fact that these children in despair are left suffering without the loving touch of a mother is the one image a reader needs to realize that the antislavery crusade is something that everyone should join, and, fortunately for the success of the United States, that abolition crusade finally worked many years later.