Journal #7

The writings of Harper and Whitter both advocate social reform, specifially the ablation of slavery. Although Harper was born free of slavery and Whitter was a Quaker, they both sought reform and racial equality. They made their voice heard through the use of writing and publication and made an everlasting impression among the community. In the poems I read, I analyzed their use of imagery in respect to relaying a message to the audience. Whitter's poem, "The Hunters of Men" is a great poem that talks about slavery and how we are hunting our own people based on pigment of skin. "And woman, kind, woman, wife, widow and maid, for the good of the hunted, is lending her aid: her foot's in the strirrip, her hand on the rein, how blithely she rides to the hunting of men." This is a great line from the poem in which Whitter uses even a womans involvment as a cry for help. He states that even these kind woman are taking inniatitve to support their husbands and slavery. It's as if the world is going crazy because woman are finding themself involved/supportive of slavery. In Harper's poem she uses imagery to reflect a slave mothers pain after her child is taken away. "She is a mother, pale with fear, her boy clings to her side, and her kirtle vainly tries, his trembling form to hide."