Journal #7

Frances E.W. Harper's poem, "The Slave Mother", vividly projects the images of a mother's child being stripped away from her. The use of imagery in the poem and the vision it projects ignites a call of action in the reader. A mother losing a child is easily the toughest thing a mother can go through. This poem describes the disparity of a slave mother as she can't protect her child from the slave masters or the law. Saying in lines 11 and 12 "As if a storm of agony/ were sweeping through the brain." Harper's imagery gives the audience witness of the emotional struggles of slavery. One of the most crushing obstacles for slaves was that the law was not on their side, and the law said that a mother's status determines the child's status. She has no control over the fact she birthed a child into hell. Harper portrays this in the fifth stanza, saying "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!". The image brought forth from this stanza depicts the crushing defeat of bringing this child into such a cruel world and having no power over it. Nothing you can do to stop it. The imagery described brings forth the cruelty of slavery and appealing to the audience to help. Harper's word play such an emotional effect on the heart of the reader.