Journal #7

            In "The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to Her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage", Whittier gives slaves some of their humanity back by speaking as a slave woman being separated from her family.  White owners worked hard to dehumanize slaves, giving themselves the idea that slavery was the natural state for Africans and that they enjoyed it.  Yet in this poem we can see just how human the slaves really were.

            The speaker describes the South as a place “where the slave whip ceaseless swings, where the noisome insect stings, where the fever demon strews poison with the falling dews, where the sickly sunbeams glare through the hot misty air”.  Just as no white person who has to work outside all day would want to live in a hot, humid, insect ridden place where there is the constant threat of disease and beating, neither would a black person.  It is not human nature to want to live in such a place. 

            The speaker also speaks of the maternal comforts that her children will not be able to receive from their mother.  In the second stanza, Whittier describes how she will never be able to watch over or listen to or comfort her children; which is essential to the development of children.  Especially for children that will be going through such hardships as slave children go through, to not have a mothers arms to go to at the end of the day is devastating.  By showing that this mother recognizes the importance of love and comfort towards her children should alert any reader that slaves are indeed human.  Hopefully this poem would have touched the hearts of slave owners, helping them to understand just what they are doing when they tore apart these human families.

Journal #6

            It can easily be seen how being black is an extreme burden, even when one has been freed.  Linda's lover was a free man of upstanding character who truly loved Linda and "believed her to be a virtuous woman". He saw how beautiful she was and wished to marry her.  He wished to have a family as any free man should be able to do.  But still he feels the turmoil of his race, because the majority of African-Americans at this time are enslaved and very few masters would allow a slave, especially a woman to marry a free man.  So while in theory this man is free, he is still a slave to race and the limits it puts on the way he can live his life.  

            Slave owners at this time found it appalling for a slave to love another, especially a freed black.

            "'Do you love this nigger?' said he, abruptly.

            'Yes sir'

            'How dare you tell me so!' he exclaimed, in great wrath."

            Here the slaves are not necessarily caught between cultures, but between human and animals.  They are denied the right to love another of the same species, a basic human emotion.  Slavery is dehumanizing not only in that the slaves are forced to work like animals, but also that they are expected to act and feel as animals, with no human emotion.  And this causes great conflict between the slaves and their owners.  It is criminal to take away the Africans peoples culture as slave owners sought to do, but it is even more horrendous to rob them of the simple emotions that separate them from actual beasts of burden.

Journal #3

In "The Wife", Irving's portrayal of women puts them in the backseat of society.  He states that women are "mere dependents and ornaments of man" and are there only to share in the prosperity of the man.  "And how, in the midst of applause, her eye would still turn to him, as if there alone she sought favour and acceptance". Wives are always seeking the approval of their husbands, no matter who else is giving it to them.  The relationship in times of prosperity involves the woman serving the man by basically looking good in the delicacies he provides.  But in times of misfortunes for the man, the women's role changes.  She is still supposed to serve him but now it is by being a crutch he can lean on.  A wife should become almost motherlike, becoming the "stay and solace" to support the "drooping head" and mend the "broken heart" the man will endure when he faces hardship.  And this is actually a very important role, according to Irving.  He says that men with a wife to console them are more likely to bounce back from hardships, namely economic ones.  He argues that womanly support stimulates the man to exertion by keeping their self respect alive and soothing their spirits. This brings to light  the saying that behind every great man there's a great woman.  Historically it is the men that come to prominence but in many cases it is women that are the foundation on which they do their work.

Journal #2

A little over halfway through last semester, I was made the captain of the Ultimate Frisbee team here at TCU. I became captain just in time to be in charge for the biggest tournament of the year.  And even working to bring together a team which had worked together all year was not easy.  And now as we are trying to incorporate and teach freshman into the team, the task has become even more complicated.  I am only trying to bring 30 or so people together from one community, I cannot imagine what it was like to bring together 13 separate colonies each with thousands of people to believe and concentrate on one cause. And just as I use non verbal communications in the form of emails and text messages to effectively communicate to my team, revolutionists used their most effective forms of written word, newspapers and pamphlets that could be produced in mass and spread throughout the colonies to let everyone know what was happening.  This allowed everyone to be involved in the movement as my emails allow everyone to know when practices and tournaments are.