The Wife Of His Youth Analysis

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Recommended: Chapter 9 african american history

This module basically describes the struggle of African Americans during the 19th and early 20th century. The main concern is equality among all the authors, except for Booker T. Washington, which we will address later. In “The Wife of His Youth,” you can see that Ryder wanted to leave his prior slave existence behind, i.e., “Suppose, too, that as the years went by, this man’s memory of the past grew more and more indistinct, until at last it was rarely, except in his dreams, that any image of this bygone period rose before his mind” (Baym & Levine, 2013, p. 472). It is not until the end of the story that we are told he is in fact Sam Taylor, the husband of Liza Jane, and had escaped slavery, i.e., “’this is the woman, and I am the man, …show more content…

He gives the hope by saying that God takes care of his children and will soon put an end to the torture, i.e., “'Cause I isn't; I'se a-judgin' Bible people by deir ac's; I 'se a-givin' you de Scriptuah, I 'se a-handin' you de fac's. Cose ole Pher'oh b'lieved in slav'ry, But de Lawd he let him see, Dat de people he put bref in,-- Evah mothah's son was free” (Baym & Levine, 2013, p. 623). As you can tell from reading that excerpt, Dunbar is comparing the slavery of African Americans to the Hebrew children and present day to the biblical period. According to Dunbar, Pharoah had enslaved Hebrew children to mend his crop and the Lord sent Moses to set the children free, i.e., “Now ole Pher'oh, down in Egypt, Was de wuss man evah bo'n, An' he had de Hebrew chillum Down dah wukin' in his co'n; 'T well de Lawd got tiahed o' his foolin', An' sez he: "I'll let him know--Look hyeah, Moses, go tell Pher'oh Fu' to let dem chillun go" (Baym & Levine, 2013, p. 622). Dunbar uses “let dem chillum go,” throughout the entirety of the poem. It is like he is constantly speaking to the people that soon the Lord will come, like he did for the Hebrew children and set his children free. He is basically telling the slave owners that they may be superior to them, but they will never be superior to

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