Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an abolitionist poet who wrote The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point. The poem was released in 1848 and tells the story of a “runaway slave” recalling her experiences as a slave leading up to her escape. Browning wished to highlight the true horrors enslaved men and women faced in order to educate her readers on the necessity of abolition. 

England had passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1834 outlawing the owning, buying, and selling of humans in every English colony across the globe. I believe the United States famously became independent around 1776 meaning the act did not pass and slavery would remain perfectly legal until the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Of course, slavery wouldn’t truly end until June 19, 1865: the last time the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced in order to free the last remaining slaves. Because slavery remained in practice, English abolitionists turned their attention towards the United States and Central America. Browning herself chose to set the story in an American setting in order to promote abolition across the Atlantic. 

Browning’s choice to write about a black woman was inspired by the specific horrors they faced under slavery. The poem specifically highlights the issue of sexual assault committed by slave owners and their officers. In the poem, the woman recalls when slavers found out she had been close with an enslaved man and chose to murder the man in front of her. The slavers sexually assaulted the woman who would then have a child as a result. In a heart wrenching stanza, the woman describes her decision to smother her child in the dead of night. Browning provided two possible motivations for the mother’s decision within the poem. The mother describes how her child outwardly appears as a white baby. It is implied that the mother chose to smother her baby in part because of his white skin reminding her of the slavers who have imprisoned her. However, one could read the mother’s actions as protection. She knows her baby looks white yet because of his heritage, will be enslaved. The mother is partly motivated by her desire to protect her baby from the horrors he is destined to experience. It’s really hard to read, but it’s important that Browning chose not to stop just short of the experience of enslaved women. Infanticide was prevelent among enslaved women.

Much like the runaway slave, Henrietta Lacks’ autonomy was stripped from her by white men in power. Her consent was ignored for the benefit of a white man. Of course, the slave owners raped the runaway slave and left her to her own devices, while Henrietta was dying of cancer, the doctors were more concerned with the fame their research would grant them to worry about her treatment. Both women had their reproductive health compromised for the benefit of the white men in power. Nobody would remember Henrietta or her experience, just like the millions of enslaved women who never received justice for their assault.