In his poem “The Negro’s Complaint”
Cowper seems to be having a slight identity crisis. The poem is written by
Cowper but it is written from the point of view of an African slave. I may be alone in this thinking but I
feel like once this fact is know it can both emphasize the importance of the
poem and belittle it.
On the argument for emphasizing the
importance, I think it’s beneficial that Cowper was a white man writing from
the point of view of an African slave. It shows a greater understanding of the
conditions and horrors that slaves face. It shows sympathy towards them and if
more people had Cowper’s way of thinking the abolitionist movement would have
been solved in a snap. Plus, people were more willing to listen to a white man
over a slave.
I also feel that Cowper being a
white man could belittle the meaning of the poem. What does a white man who has
always had rights and made a living off of writing poetry know of the suffering
of the slaves? It appears that Cowper has taken a stab at understanding and it
could’ve gone incredibly wrong. It’s also slightly insulting to assume you know
what a group of people are feeling when you will never experience the same
pain.
So, as I said, Cowper writing the
poem from the view of an African slave appears to have positive and negative
effects. Either way, slavery was abolished in England and that is all that
matters in the long run. Luckily, Cowper got to play a part in making the dream
of abolition a reality, no matter which race he was pretending to be a part of.
When you say that Cowper being a white man could belittle the meaning of the poem, I feel that it is the exact opposite. If someone such as Equianio had written it, yes it would have garnered attention, but it likely would have been viewed as a novelty by many rather than a call to arms. People who didn't care about the issue could possibly have ignored it entirely given the disconnect between them and the author.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the author is a white man makes Cowper their peer, and would make it all the easier to identify with him. The author is a man like them who is set to reap the economic benefits of slavery along with the rest of the British Empire, yet he's speaking against the Empire's short term economic prosperity and instead focusing on the long term moral and ethical stance we, as human beings, should have. As a white man, he has nothing to gain from the outlaw of slavery, yet he still campaigns for just that. in that sense, I believe his ethnicity and gender make him that much more credible.
We must also keep in mind that Cowper is playing politics here. While it may seem cruel to boil slavery down solely across party lines, but opponents made huge amounts of money and would see that legislation remain in their favor. So Cowper really needed to play towards an audience where he could actually do some good. His writing was meant for a more educated audience, that may have been more less detached from the reality of the situation. Most of these people he could persuade into agreeing that slavery is immoral and violates basic human rights, however this did not mean the total acceptance of Africans. In this I mean that people who wanted slavery abolished did not necessarily want to share afternoon tea with an African. This is why Cowper being white mattered; sure people could be empathic toward enslaving humans and the vileness that it brought, but I doubt that they would be as easily persuaded by the writings of a slave.
ReplyDeleteI think that Cowper used his identity as a white man to attempt to correct a problem that hew saw within the country he lived in. He as a white man would not have been able to have the same connection with the African community living in England as an African may have, but he could sympathize with them and use his whiteness to get a point across. Not to be crude but his poems were far more likely to be taken seriously by his audiance than if he had been an African writing the exact same thing.
ReplyDeleteI can identify (pun intended) with the identity crisis that you've accurately described. I think, however, that I am leaning toward the first scenario that you mentioned. Similar to Susilo's comment, I think it is important to fully consider Britain's sociocultural standing at the time. As a white male, Cowper was able to reach the most appropriate audience: other white males, as it was they who were literate, educated owners of slaves. Unfortunately, very few slaves at the time were allowed the opportunity of education. Cowper seems to me a very ideal candidate for this sort of abolitionist literature.
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