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  • Essay / Hoping for the Abolition of Slavery: Review of Hannah More's Poem

    Slavery began in 1619, when a Dutch ship landed 20 African slaves in the British colony of Jamestown, in Virginia. Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to African slaves as a cheaper and more abundant source of labor than indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans . After the American Revolution, many colonists—particularly in the North, where slavery was relatively unimportant to the agricultural economy—began to link the oppression of black slaves to their own oppression at the hands of the British and to call for the abolition of slavery. More wrote Slavery, A Poem in hopes of the abolition of slavery. She also wrote this poem in hopes of influencing others to join the campaign for abolition and oppose slavery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayHannah More's poem “A Slavery” is one of the works that have provided insight into the issue of slavery and called for its abolition; with the help of others, because it asks people to realize that racism and discrimination based on skin color are absurd. Hannah More is an educator, writer and social reformer. She is also known for her writings on the abolition of slavery and for encouraging people to join her and oppose slavery. More contributed to the abolitionist movement through his writings which helped raise awareness of the movement. More was not always an activist, nor was she part of the early abolitionist movement. In 1788, she met William Wilberforce and discovered his abolitionist movement. She later joined William Wilberforce's campaign to raise awareness of the movement and the goal of abolishing slavery. As a result, his poem “Slavery” came to life. The poem dramatically describes mistreated and enslaved African Americans separated from their families and questions Britain's role in the slave trade. He criticizes it most clearly with those who are inferior to slavery. She attempts to persuade her readers and listeners to adopt an anti-slavery stance. Additionally, More wants others to realize that Africans are just as identical as whites. More refers to this later in the poem and I will explain it in the following lines. In his poem, More begins by telling us that this poem is unlike any other. This is going to be a real event and not a fictional one. This is great of More because she grabs our attention and right from the first line. She references the work of Aphra Behn who wrote Oroonoko; More says: “Millions of people feel what Oroonoko felt.” More also adds to its credibility as it clearly expresses the gruesome manner in which these slaves are captured. Additionally, in this line, More mentions the struggles of Oroonoko and how millions of people at the time were experiencing what he experienced. Oroonoko is the story of an African prince who suffers from slavery. Here More uses the present tense and continues to emphasize that these slaves are suffering what Oroonoko suffered, but they are still suffering. This does not fail to draw the attention of readers to understand the many injustices and sufferings that Africans experience. These two lines not only give the true state of life of these slaves, but they give More a great sense of credibility. I also like the way More approaches this complex issue. The subject of slavery, especially at the time, was a heavy subjectto discuss. However, More managed to discuss this issue brilliantly. More uses several tactics to appeal to his readers' logic and morality. More does this by directing the questions. The questions were simple and More knew the answers; in fact, she answers it in the following lines with examples. If we want to know why More asks these questions to which she already knows the answers, we must ask ourselves an important question. Who are these questions for? The answer is aimed at the British public in particular and the world in general. These questions challenge and move the logic in people's minds in the hope that the answers will allow the British community to see for themselves that there is no difference between them and the Africans they it continues to enslave and oppress. More asks: “Does the inner immortal principle change with occasional skin color? She replies that “…No. They have heads to think, and hearts to feel, And souls…”. Later, More briefly refers to the sad fate and life of the generation that followed the slavery of their parents/grandparents. More says: "I see, through more than the mirror of imagination, The village on fire and the city on fire: See the terrible victim torn from social life... dragged by hostile hands, To distant tyrants sold... The only sad inheritance that his child obtains! . The author is illiterate and repeats the same idea throughout the poem. She emphasizes that these slaves are no different from us and deserve to be treated accordingly, not differently. I noticed a pattern that More follows as a strategy. She first caught our attention by telling us that what she was going to tell us in the poem is not fictional but rather real life. She then spoke about the suffering of slaves and then she compared Africans to whites, showing the British community that they are no different from each other. After this, More integrated religion into his belief in the abolition of slavery. Not to mention how More argues that ending the slave trade will also benefit the country. Thus, she talks about moral and religious factors. These slaves helped Britain prosper when Britain suffered from poverty and had no food to grow. These slaves worked very hard for years and managed to make Britain great again. Slaves not only contributed to British agriculture. DN Ghosh, author of Representation of Slavery in English Literature, talks about a 25-page investigation by author WA Speck that grabs the attention of readers. Ghosh explains that Britain's growing commercial prosperity was due to the fact that they sailed ships loaded with a cargo of manufactured goods in which they exchanged it at the next port of call (at the Caribbean plantation) with the profit they made from the sale of “Negros”. " with more profit. Moreover, he said, "there is not a brick in the city that is not cemented with the blood of a slave...the mansions, the luxurious life and the wealth have been drawn from the slave trade and their suffering... no reader of English literature will ever understand the human misery and agony of the slave trade. After that, these slaves still yearn for their stolen rights, with little or no care for the suffering they endure. Also, the article by Eltis, David and Stanley L. Engerman, entitled "The Significance of Slavery and the Slave Trade to the Industrialization of Britain." This answers an important question about the real importance that the slave systems of the Americas had for development..