Equiano and Apess

     When reading Apess, I was struck by how effective he was in his writing style. He clearly knew his facts, yet, rather than forcing them on the reader, he asked rhetorical questions that make the reader think. Though there is nothing soft about William Apess. He was fierce and determined to shed light on the injustice that was carried against his people and the people of Africa. He also backed up his beliefs with verses from the Bible. One of my favorite questions he poses is this: “Did you ever hear or read of Christ teaching his disciples that they ought to despise one because his skin was different than theirs? Jesus Christ being a Jew, and those of his Apostles certainly were not whites-- and did not he who completed the plan of salvation complete it for the whites as well as for the Jews, and others?” And he continues on with more questions that show how terribly wrong many white people were in their way of thinking.
    When I read Equiano, I was entirely captured by his wording so much that I believed his story to be true. Afterwards, when I found out that it was altered from the truth of his childhood life, I almost didn’t believe it. His story was vivid and filled with horrid details of the cruelty slaves faced that I didn’t mind that he, himself had not gone through it. The fact of the matter is that multitudes of innocent lives had gone through those ordeals and many of them could not share their stories.
    There is not doubt at all that both Equiano and Apess share a similarity for powerful writing. They both bring up the hypocrisy of the lives Christians live. Equaino says: “O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you -- Learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto men as you would men should do unto you? …Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely, this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.” Apess uses scripture to make his point that God calls for men to love one another. “He who loveth God loveth his brother also (I John 4:21). Let us not love in word but in deed (I John 3:18). Let your love be without dissimulation. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently (I Peter 1:22).” Both effectively show that Christians say that they are to love, as God has commanded, and their actions hardly match their words. I enjoyed reading both of their work because of this. Although, I preferred Apess because I loved that he defended all who have faced hardships at the white people’s hands, and not just his own people. I liked that he brought attention to small population of white people compared to the much larger portion of other races and the fact that when Jesus was alive, the white people were the “most degraded people on earth  at that time.”

Dynamic Women Poets: Sarah Morton and Ann Bradstreet

    After reading the poets in our Norton Anthology book, I found that I love the simplicity of poems that also shows hidden depths to the author’s feelings that I sometimes missed until a third or fourth re-reading. When reading Sarah Morton’s poem Stanzas to a Husband Recently United, I was reminded of another woman poet from an earlier reading.  Ann Bradstreet and Sarah Morton are from different centuries but I feel as though they have similar personalities. Their work is both sincere and passionate. These women could not be dead beats if they tried. Their honesty is quite refreshing when too often people try to play down their feelings. Both Sarah and Ann have ambitions for careers in writing poetry. They both concentrate on matters of their heart more so than matters of state. Ann humbly writes in the Prologue: “To sing of wars, of captains, and of kings/ Of cities founded, commonwealths begun,/ For my mean pen are too superior things;/Or how they all, or each their dates have run, / Let poets and historians set these forth,/ My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.” Ann proceeds to write of her love for writing that might be hindered by the world of superior men in which women are better suited with a needle rather than pen in hand. Sarah also has ambitions of writing, though unlike Bradstreet, her ambitions include writing of America’s history. She did not limit herself in that aspect and published three poems covering her region’s history. Although, the poem selected was about Sarah’s heart more than anything else. After hearing the back story of her life in which her husband had an affair with her sister, her poem had a stronger impact on me. I admire her bravery and lack of passiveness. Rather than becoming a lifeless woman dejected by her husbands betrayal and spending her entire time wallowing, she does the opposite. Yes, she was submissive in the aspect that she allowed him to live in their house once more. Though she makes it quite clear that their love is ruined and that she will not invite him back into the spiritual relationship they once shared. She writes: “No sordid hope’s insidious guise,/ No venal pleasure’s serpent twine/ Invites those soul-illumined eyes,/And blends this feeling heart with thine.” Sarah makes it perfectly clear that she is not happy that they are together and she will not blend her heart with his once more. Both women were without a doubt dynamic and I admire their work. Both kept their love for writing despite the trials they endured. They used their writing almost therapeutically in a sense and because of it, their work is admired centuries later.