Ralph Waldo Emerson's Battle Royal

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Recommended: Slavery in America experiences

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Battle Royal” is a very impactful piece. The piece gives particularly gruesome details of the horrible treatment of African Americans in our history. During the story a group of African American males are used as entertainment for a group of white men: Everyone fought hysterically. It was complete anarchy. Everybody fought everybody else. No group fought together for long. Two, three, four, fought one, then turned to fight each other, were themselves attacked. Blows landed below the belt and in the kidney, with the gloves open as well as closed, and with my eye partly opened now there was not so much terror. I moved carefully, avoiding blows, although not too many to attract attention, fighting group to group. The

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