Race, Violence, and American National Identity

One of the most important themes in the collection is a re-examination of U.S. history by giving voice to Black people too often ignored in conventional narratives. The Declaration of Independence, for example, has important symbolic meaning as the first statement of American values and independence. In the poem “Declaration,” Tracy K. Smith uses language from that text to speak for the slaves the original document disregarded. Once stripped of the context of royal British control, many of the lines appear hypocritical, since they fail to acknowledge the active crimes of the American colonists and slave owners at the time. For example, “Declaration” quotes a line asserting that the American colonists have already tried diplomatic means: “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for / Redress in the most humble terms: / Our repeated / Petitions have been answered only by...