Imagery in poetry can be exceedingly valuable especially in narrative poems because it provides the audience with a picture of the story being told. In the case of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem The Hunters of Men the speaker describes a hunting party whose prey are fugitive slaves running for the north. The people described in the hunting party are described as “the saint and the sinner, with cursing and prayer,/ The drunk and the sober, ride merrily there” (line 15-16). The hunters come from all walks of life to take part in this horrendous past time. However, the only line that showcases the barbarity of these practices is the one that is repeated throughout the course of the poem: “the hunting of men” (line 2). 

 The contrast between the jovial hunters and the hunted shows that those taking part in the festivities somehow don’t realize that they are capturing human beings; In their mind they are retrieving property. By letting the audience know that it is men being hunted the speaker is alerting the reader and/or the hunters to the fact that fugitive slaves are in fact people who are trying to exercise their right to freedom in the “’land of the brave and home of the free’” (line 21) and that treating humans as animals is contradictory to the ideals that the United States was based on.

Journal 6

As Harriet Jacobs writes in the story of her life “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for a woman” (780) because a woman who is enslaved is compelled to do as she is told, even if that requires her purity. As she tells her story she begs her readers not to judge her too harshly because she had no other choice. The person that should be judged in her situation is Dr. Flint because he took every opportunity to abuse his power as a man and as a master, which is something that seems very common among men in that situation. However, contrary to his own believe her had no claim over her whatsoever. Because of his tyranny Linda was cheated out of several incidents that would have made her free. Furthermore, his abuse forced her to abandon her role as a mother in order to not only save her children but to escape his persecution. The role of married men as the enforcer of slavery remains constant throughout her accounts, especially when her new ‘master’s’ husband comes looking for her even after she has been gone for years. To the married slave-owning white man, slave women in this story are seen as possessions to be bought and sold at their convenience.

Response to Journal #5

Jackie, I absolutely agree that print culture was integral to not only the start of the American Revolution but to its success. The spread of information throughout the colonies allowed everyday colonists (and not just the wealthy) to receive information regarding political issues like the Stamp Act. Also, it allowed revolutionaries to spread propaganda and pamphlets such as the Federalist Papers.
Print culture allowed Americans to unite in a way that would not have been possible in England at the time. The English nobility censored their writers so that the common people wouldn’t know what its government was doing. Also, at this point in time it was really only the nobles and the clergy that knew how to read. Americans were mostly protestants who valued the words in the bible; therefore, education and literacy became a priority in most colonial households, which allowed Americans to be educated enough to confront the English government.
Without print culture I do not think the American Revolution would have had nearly the same success that it did. The spread of information is integral to any society that hopes to function with any success let alone lead a Revolution.

Journal 4

Symbolism is a tool that authors use to convey meaning beyond the plot. Symbols can allow readers to gain insight into a character’s thoughts or provide a sense of dramatic irony or foreshadowing. For example, in the story “The Tenth of January” Elizabeth Stuart Phelps uses blood imagery to signify that something is about to change in her protagonist Asenath’s mind. Most often the narrator uses blood to describe a source of light, such as flames or the sun, refracting off of a body of water in order to signify that something is about to happen: “An oriflamme of scarlet burned in the west, flickered dully in the dirty, curdling water, flared against the windows of the Pemberton, which quivered and dripped, Asenath thought, as if with blood” (Phelps 4). Shortly after this passage Asenath sees her fiancée looking at her close friend Del in a way that he never did for her. Blood is also used to describe the river on the morning of the fire. The use of blood imagery is a way of describing how flames are reflected on water, which is especially ironic considering why so many girls died in the Pemberton Mill fire.

Journal 3

In his short story “The Wife” Washington Irving describes a couple in the face of poverty to demonstrate that overcoming hardships is part of what it means to be an American. Although the basic construct of marriage had not changed between England and America, the roles of each spouse endured a subtle evolution. In the early nineteenth century, England still revolved around wealth and status; because of this rigid propriety, a man was looked down upon by even his closest of friends if he could no longer provide financial stability and his wife would has been cast out of prosperous society because she could no longer uphold her husband’s good name. In America however, there was no traditional aristocratic society. A man was still responsible for the financial well being of his family, however, it was only pride that stood in the way of a man in fiscal crisis. The fear that he and his wife would be abandoned by his friends and what that would do to his wife is what made Leslie keep his secret for so long. However, he underestimates his wife’s ability to prosper in adversity. In England, a woman in this position would have been considered useless; but in America she would be given the opportunity to console her husband and let her comforting nature blossom.