Bella Martinez

Dr. Lee

ENGL&244

13 November

 

Main Blog Assignment: Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney, "To the First Slave Ship" (pp. 109-110), "Slavery" (pp. 113-114).

       Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney as stated in the Norton Anthology Literature: Volume B textbook, was “the most popular woman poet of the early national and ante-bellum period” (106). She was very talented and throughout her years of writing poetry she came to a point where she began to use her writings to try to sway the hearts of man to better respect and treat not only slaves, but the poor as well as the Indians. Among the first, as according to the text, “…she wrote poetry well before abolitionism became a popular reform in New England” (107). And she strongly supported the idea that the nation was losing its way and was forgetting to be “one” and live up to its true ways of republicanism as well as spiritual ideals (107). With that, during the time she wrote a particular poem titled, “To the First Slave Ship” written in 1827, slavery was only getting worse. Times were hard for those in the minority and the poor and so they would become slaves and would have to submit their lives to their “owners” in order to survive in some ways. She wrote this particular poem in response to the happenings of slavery occurring during that time.

        In Sigourney’s poem, “To the First Slave Ship” she expresses an undying sadness and distaste for the happenings with regards to slavery; in particular the transfer of human cargo on “slave ships.” That transfer is quite bothersome in that she emphasizes this particular string of words, “Dire engine! O’er the troubled main” in order to fully communicate that what is being done is wrong and is more than troublesome. In the beginning she is speaking to the boat as if it is alive. This is perfectly shown when she questions, “Hear’st thou their moans whom hope hath fled?—Wild cries in agonizing starts?—Know’st though thy humid sails are spread with ceaseless sigh from broken hearts?—“ (109). She is speaking to the ship directly here, trying to make it clear that it’s not okay that the ship itself is being powered by that of the sails and the ceaseless sighs from broken hearts that “spread” the “humid sails” themselves in fact (107). Although she may be speaking more so to the ship in text, indirectly she also wants us to think about the human in control of the ship and the wrongs they are causing because they really are the only ones who could stop if they wanted. On the same line, she makes it very clear that the nation and humanity are wrong and that humanity is worse than the physical toils the sun has on us. This is mentioned when she says, “The Sun upon thy forehead frown’d” meaning just that and the fact that the Sun in all its glory or God is sad (110). She goes on to talk more specifically to the “slaves” themselves by saying “Poor outcast slave!—Our guilty land should tremble while she drinks thy tears..” (110). This particular sentence serves as a reminder to the nation and even that of a “wake-up call” for them. Sigourney is trying to express that America should feel guilty and for that, as they cause suffering and pain, they should fear and cower as well. They should fear for the likely occurrence of a slave uprising and not only that, but they too should fear God. The “fear God” aspect comes in when she continues in her poem by saying, “…or sees in vengeful silence stand, the beacon of thy shorten’d years;--should shrink to hear her sons proclaim the sacred truth that heaven is just,” (110).

        With regards to the larger themes being developed in our module it’s obvious to see that the hardships of slavery and a continual expression of sadness and disgust for and by it are quite apparent. In reading Harriot Jacobs autobiography especially, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” so much pain and suffering was expressed because she had experienced it all first-hand; beatings, whippings, sexual abuse, all of it. Although Sigourney didn’t experience slavery first-hand as Jacobs did, they both agree that slavery is wrong and should not be considered “okay” by any means. Both texts function on pathos and in Sigourney’s text especially this is furthermore shown when she questions as mentioned earlier, “Hear’st thou their moans whom hope hath fled?—Wild cries in agonizing starts?—Know’st though thy humid sails are spread with ceaseless sigh from broken hearts?—“ (109). In this particular sentence she is not only using pathos to introduce feelings of sadness, she too is using a sort of personification in that she is speaking to the ship as if its living and that she is saying to it that its “humid sails are spread with ceaseless sighs from broken hearts,” almost as if it’s being kept “alive” so to speak by those things in particular (109).

Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th Ed., New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.