Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
Toiling through the weary day,
And at night the spoiler’s prey.
Oh, that they had earlier died,
Sleeping calmly, side by side,
Where the tyrant’s power is o’er
And the fetter galls no more!
Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
From Virginia’s hills and waters
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
By the holy love He beareth;
By the bruised reed He spareth;
Oh, may He, to whom alone
All their cruel wrongs are known,
Still their hope and refuge prove,
With a more than mother’s love.
Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia’s hills and waters;
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
4.15.3 Reading and Review Questions
1. In “The Hunters of Men,” how does Whittier use allusions to and
assumptions about the Land of the Free? To what eect?
2. Who are the hunters of men the poem identies? What, if anything, do
they have in common? Think of such apparent opposites as sinners and
saints, or kind women and politicians.
3. Why do the hunters of men need alms?
4. In “The Farewell,” why does Whittier choose a mother to voice the pains
of family separation that slaves endure? What attitudes about and toward
mothers does Whittier use to enforce his poem’s intent? Why, and how?
5. In “The Farewell,” why does the mother lament the daughter rather than
any (possible) sons? Why does the poem focus on the plight of female
slavery? What assumptions about themselves does Whittier challenge
his readers in this poem? Why, and how?
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