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Freedom's Plow Summary
This poem is a hymn and a rallying cry to freedom. In it, Hughes quotes the words of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass. An old slave saying: "Keep your hand on the plow. Hold on" here becomes a metaphor for perseverance in the struggle for true freedom.
Freedom's Plow Analysis
More than any poem we have read thus far, "Freedom's Plow" reaches the fevered pitch of a rallying cry for an oppressed people. The poem can also be read as an attempt to create a narrative worth living for; he speaks of the slaves that were brought to America as partaking in the project of creating a land of freedom. Though they were not free, they held the seed of freedom in their heart. This narrative is the only history available to the descendants of black slaves, and it...
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This section contains 189 words (approx. 1 page at 400 words per page) |
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