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"Destruction of the Roehampton Estate," Adolphe Duperly (1833); Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning from The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (London,1889-90)

"Destruction of the Roehampton Estate," Adolphe Duperly (1833); Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning from The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (London, 1889-90)

In the scope of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's (hereafter EBB) poetic ouevre, five poems can be identified as addressing, whether overtly or obliquely, the ongoing issue of slavery. Each piece marks a particular moment in EBB's ideological trajectory, moving from her juvenilia, represented in “The African” (early 1820s), to apprenticeship poems like "The Appeal" (1833), to her much-discussed mature works “The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim’s Point” (1848), “Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave” (1850), and “A Curse for a Nation” (1856). By contextualizing these particular pieces both within their respective historical moments and our own contemporary perspectives, this COVE edition seeks to explore the nuances of power relations inherent in ongoing issues of race, gender, and class, seen in both the dynamics inherent in EBB's positionality as a white woman descended from a plantation-owning family, writing about the plight of enslaved people, and the broader system of racial inequity that persists into the present.

Timelines, Galleries, and Maps

"The African," Page 5 | Gallery Image

Page 5 of EBB's manuscript of "The African."
Accession #: EBB MSS, D0015.1

Transcription:
And anxious strove but to delay
Those fatal words, she knew were near –

"Affa thou hast shared my lot, –
"My lofty rank, my slavish toil –
"But Affa yet thou know’st me not,
"(Nay check that… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

"The African," Page 4 | Gallery Image

Page 4 of EBB's manuscript of "The African."
Accession #: EBB MSS, D0015.1

Transcription:
Oh no! he is not quite alone,
For there is one who, at his side,
Young, in the glow of beauty’s pride,
Stills the low convulsive groan,
The falling tear, the deep drawn sigh,
And inward throb of… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

"The African," Page 3 | Gallery Image

Page 3 of EBB's manuscript of "The African."
Accession #: EBB MSS, D0015.1

Transcription:
One which would brook no tyranny,
One which had scorned the monarch’s might,
One which boldly would be free,
Tho’ thousands perished in the fight.
Where’s the descendant of their line,
Where Orenzebe son of kings?
Dwells he in tents where… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

"The African," Page 2 | Gallery Image

Page 2 of EBB's manuscript of "The African."
Accession #: EBB MSS, D0015.1

Transcription:
What forms beneath yon palm recline?
But, not enjoying gentle sleep,
With downcast eyes upon the deep,
They seem thus lonely, converse seeking.
One was a chief of might divine,
Of aspect dread, and eye ball speaking –
Which burns as if ‘twere… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

"The African," Page 1 | Gallery Image

Page 1 of EBB's manuscript of "The African."
Accession #: EBB MSS, D0015.1

Transcription: 
The African
A Poem in two Cantos

Canto the first
Cold shone the moon on distant mountains,
With her mazy beams of… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

Key Events: EBB and the Road to Abolition | Timeline

This timeline tracks key events in the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her anti-slavery poetry, and the fight for abolition across the British Empire and the United States. In doing so, it contextualizes EBB and her work within the scope of nineteenth-century sociopolitics and culture, charting historical moments of overlap and divergence between the two.

Posted by Emily Crider on

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