Equality and White Superiority in The Little Black Boy

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Equality and White Superiority in

William Blake’s “The Little Black Boy”

William Blake's "The Little Black Boy”, written in 1789, is about a little black boy who compares himself to a little English white boy that he and his family work for. The poem was written in recognition of slavery. The poem is written in quatrains in each stanza with a rhyme scheme of ABAB in a ballad style. The setting of the poem sounds to be during the time of slavery. This is concluded in lines 25-26, "I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear/ To lean in joy upon our father's knee". The themes of this are spirituality and equality. The black boy speaks of the dark color of his skin compared to the light skin color of the English boy. "And I am black, but O! my soul is white;" (line 2). Here the little black boy states that his “soul is white” as a symbol of purity.

Slavery in the United States began in 1619 when the first slaves were brought from Africa to Jamestown, Virginia. Theses slaves were transported to help in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton. Slavery became legal in America, Canada and Britain in the year 1763. Slaves never learned how to read or write, since it was unnecessary for the labor. Also, traders and slave owners didn’t want the slaves to understand the government or they might begin to revolt. Colored slaves were treated poorly by many of their slave owners. Many of them were hung and beaten just for the color of their skin. Though slaves were never in England, they were being traded on British territory outside of England. About 5% of profits from the slave trade and plantations in the West Indies were given to Britain during the Industrial Revolution. After the Abolition Movement, in 1807, the British...

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.... She explains his dark-colored skin as God's love, which is the sun, beaming on them, causing them to be darker than others. "Look on the rising sun: there God does live, and gives his light, and gives his beam away... And we are put on earth a little space,/ That we may learn to bear the beams of love," (lines 9-10, 13-14).

The entire last stanza arose a thought in my head. Why is it that when God came for both of the boys that the white boy couldn't have the skin color of the little black boy? I believe this goes back to the theme that being white was superior to any other race. The themes changes to the equality of man through God’s eyes. "And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,/ And be like him, and he will then love me." (lines 27-28)

Bibliography

1. Blake, William. “The Little Black Boy” Poetry Foundation, 1789

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