AnalyzeRunaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point
Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a Victorian poet born on March 6, 1806. Her inspiration came from reading the works of other amazing writers like William Shakespeare and John Milton. Browning’s approach in her writing differs from their works in many ways. For instance, her writing is considered to promote social change. It focuses on high emotion and the experience of a runaway slave. Browning represents as an abolitionist with deep sympathy for slaves and their sufferment during cruel times during slavery. In her poem, “Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point”, Browning’s narrator speaks volumes, emphasizing her life during her tragic experience as a pregnant runaway slave. Browning conveys the act of infanticide in her plot in order to express and share the motif of the poem. The narrator of this sonnet describes the critical conditions under which she kills her offspring. The speaker portrays the degree to which slavery has dehumanized and denied her of her maternal desire.
Browning’s narrator represents the women in her society that suffer abuse and rape. The narrator is extremely in love with a former slave, but is ripped apart from one another during their captivity. “They wrung my cold hands out of his/ they dragged him--- where?/ I crawled to touch his blood's mark in the dust…not much/ ye pilgrim-souls/ though plain as this !”. This is a result of the narrator watching her lover being severely harmed, causing a lot of misery and traumatizing the narrator. The treatment of slaves terrifies women from not wanting to have babies, due to the conditions.
The mother's privileges are dictated by the slave masters. Barrett Browning's storyteller from the start endeavors to pick her lover and build a relationship, yet that endeavor is stopped when the white men murder her lover and after that rape her. In spite of the fact that Barrett Browning signals in this scene to the maltreatment seen by male slaves, the artist's emphasis is obviously focusing on the cruel predicament. Eventually, the narrator gives birth to a baby that instantly widened her eyes, as she sees the child’s skin color. She discovered that her lover was not the father of her child. This reveals the rape she experienced with her slave master, once being ripped apart from her lover. It is already sad knowing the baby will face slavery, but to face it being partially white is even worse. “I am black, you see/ And the babe who lay on my bosom so/Was far too white . . . too white for me/As white as the ladies who scorned to pray”. The skin pigment frightens her knowing that bringing this child in the world will only bring pain and life long suffering. Even though the child was born mixed, this does not give the child any special exemptions from the harsh labor slaves faced. This actually worsens the child’s experience, being that the infant is biracial.
Sample Solution