SUMMARY FOR BURY ME IN A FREELAND

Introduction :

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was one of the most prolific and popular African American
writers of the nineteenth century, authoring four novels, several widely praised volumes of poems, and
a number of essays and short stories. Born in Baltimore to free black parents who died when she was
young, Frances Watkins was raised by her uncle William Watkins, a prominent educator and
abolitionist. She taught at schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and in the early 1850s left teaching to
lecture for the Maine Anti-Slavery Society and other antislavery organizations. She married Fenton
Harper of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1860, and after his death four years later she resumed lecturing,
supporting the cause of black suffrage and urging blacks to work for their uplift through temperance,
education, and economic empowerment. In 1892 she published her best-known work of fiction, Iola
Leroy. For most of her life, however, she was best known for her poetry. Prefaced by William Lloyd
Garrison and published in 1854, her first volume of poetry, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (Boston:
J. B. Yerrinton & Son), which included several poetic "responses" to Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, sold
approximately 12,000 copies in its first four years in print and was reprinted at least twenty times
during Harper's lifetime. "Bury Me in a Free Land" was written in the late 1850s and published in the
1864 Liberator. Like Whitfield's America and some of Whitman's poetry, this particular poem raises
pointed questions about the nation's failure to live up to its ideals. The poem is also hauntingly
reminiscent of Dickinson's "tomb" poems, thereby suggesting that in antebellum America the
confinements of the tomb provide a particularly appropriate locale for meditations on slavery and
freedom.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, sets the tone and theme with the first stanza of this poem Bury Me in a
Free Land, which is written in the quatrain format with rhyming couplets. The poem does an excellent
job of illustrating the thoughts of liberation going through the mind of an individual in physical
bondage. The poem allows one to sense the feeling of what goes through the mind of a person who is
captured and dragged into slavery.
The essence of the poem stemming from the lament of a slave, does not seek a glorious place to rest in
terms of worldly possessions and more glorious. The poem speaks of being buried outside the realms of
slavery, which to the author is beyond such worldly possessions. The articulation here shows that
slavery has had a terrible impact on those grasped within its dark shackles, thus having the life's blood
sucked out of them. The poor who has lost the will to resist were even more greatly affected and their
spirits crushed. The spirit of a person is expected to rest in peace after the person has passed away;
however, in this poem regarding slavery, the author alludes to the fact that her spirit "could not rest" in
"a land of slaves." This highlights the demoralizing impact slavery has had on those violently dragged
into its terrible dungeon of darkness.
The images in the fourth stanza of this poem are very chilling. Listen to these words: I could not sleep
if I saw the lash / Drinking her blood at each fearful gash / And saw her babes torn from her breast /
Like trembling doves from their parent nest. This stanza brings to light the grave images that exist in
slavery. Harper really poured her heart out through the words in this stanza in an appeal for others to
rise up against such life-threatening and life-taking situations.
The last stanza speaks to the author's intent of this poem regarding being free from slavery. This stanza
states, I ask no monument, proud and high / To arrest the gaze of passers-by; / All that my yearning
spirit craves, / Is bury me not in a land of slaves. Here we feel the impact of the poem and the author's
intent to be free; free from hate, violence, tribulation, depressive conditions, and indentured servitude
even in death.

The quality of this poem is brilliant. Harper's mastery and articulation of diction to portray slavery is
poignant. Her words regarding the mother's shriek of wild despair in the third stanza, and drinking her
blood at each fearful gash in the fourth stanza send chills down one's spine. This is just an awesome
poem of reality which still applies to modern slavery of the mind in today's environment and physical
slavery in others.
Joseph S. Spence, Sr. (aka "Epulaeryu Master"), is the author of "The Awakened One Poetics" (2009),
which is published in seven different languages. He also co-authored two poetry books, "A Trilogy of
Poetry, Prose and Thoughts for the Mind, Body and Soul" (2005), and "Trilogy Moments for the Mind,
Body and Soul," (2006). He invented the Epulaeryu poetry form, which focuses on succulent cuisines.
Joseph is a Goodwill Ambassador for the state of Arkansas. He has completed over twenty years of
service with the U.S. Army.

THEME
What are the themes of "Bury Me in a Free Land" by Frances E.W. Harper?
The predominate theme in "Bury me in a Free Land" is that of the horrors of slavery. Harper claims she
could not rest in peace if she knew that she was buried in a land where people were subjected to these
indignities:
I could not rest if I heard the tread
Of a coffle gang to the shambles led
And the mother's shriek of wild despair
Rise like a curse on the trembling air.

Harper repeatedly evokes slavery's terrors and abuses, using images of blood, shreiking, moans, and
death. She juxtaposes this with freedom, her other central theme, only possible in a land where "bloated
might/Can rob no man of his dearest right." Harper's poem makes a simple request, only asking that she
not be buried in a land where slavery exists. In doing so, she seems to argue that the issue of slavery
itself is not complex. Slavery is inherently evil, and just as she could not be buried in a land of slavery,
so Americans should not rest easy knowing that the institution exists in their midst.
The theme of "Bury Me in a Free Land" is the unchristian nature of slavery. Harper, an AfricanAmerican poet, writes in the first stanza:
"Make me a grave whereer you will,/ In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill; /Make it among earths humblest
graves, /But not in a land where men are slaves."
Following Christian ideas about the importance of humility, she writes that she would rather be buried
in a lowly grave than be buried where slavery still exists. The idea is that the existence of slavery
causes the very ground in which she is buried to be unhallowed.
The poet uses the idea that slavery is unchristian to provoke fellow Christians to become abolitionists
and fight against the institution of slavery. For example, the poet continually uses images of innocent
beings such as "babes torn from her breast" and "young girls from their mothers arms/ Bartered and
sold for their youthful charms." By using these images of innocent beings who are defiled by slavery,
she stresses that slavery is diabolical in nature and that it makes its practitioners unchristian.

What is the theme of the poem "Bury Me in a Free Land" by Frances E.W Harper?Be
specific.
Frances Harper (1825-1911) was an African-American poet who was involved in the movement to abolish
slavery. Her poem "Bury Me in a Free Land" is clearly an anti-slavery statement.

The speaker in the poem says that she is willing to be buried anywhere, even among "earth's humblest graves,"
as long as she is not buried "in a land where men are slaves."
The speaker describes some of the horrors of slavery: lashings, "babes torn from [their mother's] breast,"
bloodhounds seeking fugitives, and young girls being sold "from their mother's arms...for their youthful
charms."
The speaker says that she could not rest in a place where such things take place; if she saw them from her
eternal resting-place, her "eye would flash with a mournful flame, / [Her] death-pale cheek [would] grow red
with shame."
Similar to the outlook of many slaves, the speaker does not see any practical solution to the slavery problem.
Rather, she seeks refuge from the problem in the afterlife.
"Bury Me in a Free Land"
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper uses different types of figurative language to convey the theme of slavery. She
pleads the audience to not let her be buried in a land where slavery still exists. Harper cleverly uses metaphors,
similes and imagery to show us the horror and despair of slavery. She shows us the distress of women slaves as
they have their children taken away from them, and I saw her babes torn from her breasts/like trembling doves
from their parents nest. This simile of the dove reminds us how innocent and fragile the slaves where and
how brutal the pain they wen through was. This depiction of the baby bird being taken away from the parents
nest is very emotional but it conveys a strong message to the audience about the awfulness of slavery. Harpers
powerful use of emotive language really expresses the horrendous lives of slaves to a further extent. With words
such as shriek, trembling and shudder forces us to see the reality of live as a slave. Through direct
language as well as her tone being mournful and solemn she conveys the theme of slavery. She depicts the slave
owners in an emotional way through her use of metaphors, Of bloodhounds seizing their human prey. She
uses this to illustrate the nature of the white men and indicates that they have no respect for human kind.
Through her choice of imagery and language Harper strongly protests against slavery and morally conveys the
fearful lives of slaves. This poem makes us question whether we can rest in peace knowing that slavery still
exists.
Francis Ellen Walkins Harper "Bury Me in a Free Land" Context Reflection At the time of writing Bury Me in a Free Land 1858 and publishing it 1864, slavery still existed in America. America was
involved in a civil war with the confederate south fighting against the union north. Slavery had been abolished in the north
and the southern states were fighting against the anti slave movement. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation
proclamation, which proclaimed the freedom of slaves in all in rebellion. This poem Francis Ellen Walkins Harper states
that as long as slavery exists in America then the land is tainted and so America was still a cursed nation. There can be no
rest in a land where slaves still exist. The blood and tears of slaves poison the ground itself and no one should want to be
buried in this land of slaves.