It strikes me that our initial readings quickly reveal a very clear answer to the question of whether the Civil War is really the “unwritten war” as posed by Kelly within the class syllabus. While not necessarily always written about the Civil War specifically, we’re able to gain a much greater understanding of the broad landscape surrounding the issues of slavery and freedom, as well as the lives sacrificed in pursuit.
As evidenced through George Moses Horton’s “On hearing of the intention of a gentleman to purchase the Poet’s freedom,” we know that Horton was relating how it felt to be a slave on his long journey for freedom during the Civil War period. For example, “With pity strove to break the slavish bar” in the eleventh stanza indicates another’s generosity in helping Horton out of slavery and into freedom.
Likewise, in Frederick Douglas’ The Heroic Slave and Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, we gain a greater understanding of the extreme racial tensions leading up to the Civil War and the social stigma and pressures attached to racial sympathy. In The Heroic Slave, extreme racial disparity is poignantly highlighted in Listwell’s thoughts immediately following Washington’s soliloquy (pp. 12-13), and Cereno’s account of revengeful and violent mutiny aboard the San Dominick in Benito Cereno (pp. 93-105) speaks to the racial climate during this time. Additionally, we begin to understand the social pressures and dangers associated with abolitionist motives as seen through Listwell’s need to remain secretive in assisting Washington throughout Heroic Slave.
Lastly, through use of profound death and war imagery in Emily Dickenson’s “They dropped like Flakes”, “The name of it – is ‘Autumn’”, and “It feels a shame to be Alive – “, a vivid history unfolds and is poetically splayed before us, evidence of Emily Dickenson’s witness to the perils of the Civil War, and likely indicative of mass public opinion typical of that era.
Based on central themes presented in each of the above works, and ascribing to the adage that “art closely mimics life”, one could conclude that our historical legacy is contained within their very pages. Indeed, to read between the “written” lines of these great literary authors, is to understand the Civil War’s “unwritten” history.
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I really wanted to complement Nan's entry, since it was so clear and succinct. It was an "unwritten war" as you have indicated in the references from the the works by Douglas, Melville and Dickinson.
ReplyDeleteAnother comment on a general nature is how these works were written from the standpoint of the authors and their respective intent. Douglas, writing as a response to being a "censored" abolitionist - censored in respect to the way he wanted to present information versus how he was "encouraged" to present it; Melville, with more than a hint of satire that we see later in the poetry we read, and Dickinson who really gave meaning to "unwritten" through her extremely interesting style. It lets us look at the time leading up to, during and after the war. We can see the events more clearly through the eyes of a former slave, a crewman from a ship and a northern woman better than through mere dates and events. Douglas making the struggle of Washington a noble act through his passionate speech, Melville using deciet and trickery as much as Babo does to continually bait the reader and Dickinson through comparitively short poems that envoke a short story by causing the reader to think and look at the words.
If we could only speak to them today.
Michael