Isabel Allende: "Island Beneath the Sea"
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Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Monday, March 9, 2009
Speaking of Slavery
This blog is for people who want to refresh American discourse not just on slavery but on the African sojourn in America. Let us begin this conversation by responding to a question posed by minister and abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet.
Garnet offered this rhetorical question on August 21, 1843. I like to think of this question in relation to Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask." I wonder if Dunbar, two generations removed from Garnet, realized that America, if it ever had acknowledged black suffering, had already put it aside. Is this what we see in the words, "Why should the world be overwise in counting all our tears and sighs?" Has Dunbar concluded that our misery has not been comprehended, that it cannot or will not be comprehended? And, is Garnet as well addressing an American audience who he knows does not feel nor acknowledge this particular misery? Is he neverthless hopeful of reaching said audience?
"Slavery! How much misery is comprehended in that single word?"
Garnet offered this rhetorical question on August 21, 1843. I like to think of this question in relation to Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask." I wonder if Dunbar, two generations removed from Garnet, realized that America, if it ever had acknowledged black suffering, had already put it aside. Is this what we see in the words, "Why should the world be overwise in counting all our tears and sighs?" Has Dunbar concluded that our misery has not been comprehended, that it cannot or will not be comprehended? And, is Garnet as well addressing an American audience who he knows does not feel nor acknowledge this particular misery? Is he neverthless hopeful of reaching said audience?
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