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2.14 Black Organizing in the North: Freedom, Women’s Rights, and Education
New American History, American Visions
You have previously analyzed Maria W. Stewart’s 1832 speech "Why Sit Here and Die" delivered at Franklin Hall, Boston, to the New England Anti-Slavery Society.
Black poet and orator Frances Ellen Watkins used poetry to convey the atrocities of slavery. In doing so she, like other Black authors, inspired Americans to the abolitionist cause. View this video interpretation of Watkins’ poem, “Bury Me in a Free Land,” written for The Anti-Slavery Bugle newspaper in 1858. (Use the closed captioning feature to read along as you view the video.)
- Why was literature so important to the abolitionist movement? Who was the audience?
- What similarities or differences do you find between Maria W. Stewart’s 1832 speech and Frances Ellen Watkins’ poem?
- What reason or purpose do you imagine the poet chose this subject for her poem?
- How might the poem have been used in her work as an educator, lecturer, or abolitionist?
Field Studio. “Frances Ellen Watkins.” American Visions, December 2023. https://visions.newamericanhistory.org/#frances-ellen-watkins