EmpathyThey blazed the trails, cleared the forest, built the dwellings, tilled the land, planted the seeds, harvested the crops, dug the ore, kept the live stock, nursed the children created and maintained the wealth of the New World…. without pay.

It is dawn somewhere in South Carolina in the year 1830 and loud harsh bells are ringing, you wake up from a deep sleep, still tired.But for you there is no rest…Not for you the ease of a slow summer morning…Not for you the shade of the cypress tree by the river…

For you are a slave… you are another persons property……a human being purchased for goods or money… used like an animal and housed and clothed in the cheapest of ways… all that someone else should prosper and grow rich.

The Slave’s Dream

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland in America in 1807. While still a student he developed the habit of reading and writing. He taught at Bowdoin College and Harvard University. After retiring from Harvard, Longfellow devoted himself exclusively to writing.

The Slave’s Dream is one of the eight poems which Longfellow wrote on the topic of slavery and formed a part of his collection called ‘Poems on Slavery’, published in 1842 as his first public support for abolition of slavery.

In the dimness of his sleep he dreamt of his native land.

The slave found himself walking under the palm trees once again as the chieftain of his land.

Once more he saw in his dark eyed queen in his dream

The forest seemed to have got tongues and seemed to be shouting loudly for freedom.

His soul seemed to have broken free from the body of the slave…

Theme : The Slave’s Dream by Longfellow echos through a negro slave the universal desire of every human being to be free. The poet says that the desire to be free cannot be suppressed even though one remains in fetters for years together. The slave who drudged miserably, bound in chains of slavery, was a free man in his dreams.Slavery is a curse and freedom all bliss. Free animals are better than enslaved human being. When life itself becomes all slavery death comes as a liberator. Body is destroyed by death but the soul is free.

It is no dishonor to be a slave, it is a dishonor to be a slave owner. -Mahatma Gandhi

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