What Does The Runaway Slave At Pilgrim's Point Mean
The poem "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point", is written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning during the Victorian period. A female African slave is the main persona of the poem and she is running away. The slave has also taken an infant along with her. Which she is ashamed of having, because the child is probably for her master. In line 115, the slave says "And the babe who lay on my bosom so, was far too white, too white for me...". The slave goes on to say how, since the baby’s face is too white, she hates looking at it. Finally, by covering the child with a cloth and smothering it, she commits infanticide (most likely so the baby won’t have to suffer slavery as well). Throughout the poem, the slave woman restates the fact that she is black.
It could either be an answer to how own questions of why she is could be an expression of contempt for why she's mistreated. In other words, she's answering her own question as to why her counterparts had a good life; yet, African Americans could not relish in freedom. She does, however, reminisce about happy life was in Africa before becoming enslaved; lines 58 & 59 states, "But once, I laughed in girlish glee, for one of my colour stood in the track..." The statement could indicate that Africans were happy and content with their lives.
It could either be an answer to how own questions of why she is could be an expression of contempt for why she's mistreated. In other words, she's answering her own question as to why her counterparts had a good life; yet, African Americans could not relish in freedom. She does, however, reminisce about happy life was in Africa before becoming enslaved; lines 58 & 59 states, "But once, I laughed in girlish glee, for one of my colour stood in the track..." The statement could indicate that Africans were happy and content with their lives.