Analyze_Harper,_‘Bury_Me_In_A_Free_Land’

Analyze Harper, ‘Bury Me In A Free Land’ France Harper was never a slave herself. However, been born in Baltimore, Maryland, a well-known “slave state” then, she was hugely influenced by the leftover impact from slavery, the continuously discrimination regarding the racism, sexism and political issues and luckily, by her well-educated uncle, William Watkins. So that she was able to express her interest in radical politics and religions freely and devote to lofty ideas. “Bury Me in a Free Land” was published in 1864 the same year when Harper’s husband, Fenton Harper died. I can’t be sure if this poem was directly written for him, but it was indeed a sentiment from all the black people at that time. I believe the title “Free Land” doesn’t necessarily refer to a geographical location, but a place where is slavery-free, racism-free and sexism-equally treated, and definitely not a place like Baltimore where black men and woman could never spiritually get away from what had taken place in the past. The freedom Harper was longing for through this poem was represented both as a physical condition and spiritual achievement. These sentences such as “…the tread of a coffle-gang to the shambles led…” “ …The lash drinking her blood at each fearful gash…” “…the harper, black, slave, place, slavery, poem, people, never, true, treated, system, suggested, slaves, physical, person, past, men, life, land, however, herself, freedom, free, formal, called, been, baltimore, youthful, young, year, written, work, women, woman, without