The poem is written from the perspective of a white, female child whose parents are slave owners. The child wonders why slaves are treated so poorly because she is looking at slavery from such an innocent perspective. During slavery, slaves owners used many devices to justify slavery (such as christianity, not accepting the slaves as equals or even as people, not looking past the color of the slaves to the slaves’ identity), and they probably taught all of these things to their kids, so their kids could eventually grow up to be slave owners, and could therefore prosper in the south. A very young female, however, may not have been taught these things yet, partly because she is very young and partly because she is female. Because of that, a young girl would be able to look at slavery with her very own, uninfluenced perspective. I also used a white, southern child to show how not everyone in the south was directly involved in slave trade. Some didn't have slaves, and some probably didn't even agree with slavery. In addition, it wasn't the blacks who ended slavery, it was the whites. So to make black people the heroes of every story having to do with slaves is inaccurate. The people who ended slavery were white people, who grew up with slavery being a very real thing in the world, and they decided to fight against it.
I tried to talk about singing to show that the slaves had their own culture. I think that when we think about slavery, the only culture we think about is the southern culture. The slaves, however, had their very own culture (such as their very own songs) that is often overlooked.
Overall, I think everyone can agree that slavery was a huge injustice, but not everyone knows why. Many people think that the only bad thing about slavery is that slaves were beaten, and they lived in bad living situations. I, however, don’t believe that physical abuse is the worst offense the white committed. Personally, I would rather be beaten, than be looked at as someone without an identity. I wrote this poem mainly to show that the slaves did have an identity, as one people, and as individuals, and that one awful thing the slave owners did was overlook that completely in an attempt to justify their wrongdoings.
I tried to talk about singing to show that the slaves had their own culture. I think that when we think about slavery, the only culture we think about is the southern culture. The slaves, however, had their very own culture (such as their very own songs) that is often overlooked.
Overall, I think everyone can agree that slavery was a huge injustice, but not everyone knows why. Many people think that the only bad thing about slavery is that slaves were beaten, and they lived in bad living situations. I, however, don’t believe that physical abuse is the worst offense the white committed. Personally, I would rather be beaten, than be looked at as someone without an identity. I wrote this poem mainly to show that the slaves did have an identity, as one people, and as individuals, and that one awful thing the slave owners did was overlook that completely in an attempt to justify their wrongdoings.