Natasha Trethewey Southern History Poem

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“Southern History” is about what the speaker learned in her classroom, a misrepresented and distorted view of slavery. Natasha Trethewey draws from personal experience to write this poem. I imagine she is the only black student in a classroom with predominantly white students, which already puts her at a disposition, as it is 1966. The teacher, presumably white, tells the class that “before the war, they (the slaves) were happy...quoting our textbook”(1-2). Natasha is aware of these lies; however, she doesn’t speak out against this injustice, as she is powerless. The rhyming couplet at the end encompasses the theme of being inferior, and connects the words lie and I together, which illustrates the guilt the speaker feels.

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