ABSTRACT

The Antislavery Movement and English Poetry of the Nineteenth Century:
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Barrett Browning

Kim Sang-hoon

This thesis examines the first generation Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, and one of the greatest Victorian female poets, Barrett Browning regarding the antislavery movement of the nineteenth century. The purpose of this study is to reveal how their works had an effect on the abolitionism movement in England and / or in America even though they had their own style of theme, genre, tone, diction and so forth. It is not too much to say that they all were as good as the abolitionists in the era of the movement because they basically opposed to slavery and slave trade and tried to restore freedom, equality, fraternity and liberate African slaves. They wished to recover humanity for all mankind, especially for the enslaved blacks, our brothers.
Chapter Ⅰ mainly studies “To Toussaint L''Ouverture” and “September 1st, 1802” to show Wordsworth’s compassion and sympathy for Toussaint, a famous leader of the Haitian Revolution, and for a Negro woman banished from France or West Indies. Moreover, in “To Thomas Clarkson” Wordsworth indicates that he was delighted to hear the new that the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade had been passed with a vigorous effort of Thomas Clarkson. He praised Clarkson for the accomplishment. Wordsworth did not criticize slavery and slave trade directly, but sympathetic attitude to the slaves secretly appears in his works. Chapter Ⅱ presents Coleridge’s enthusiastic participation in the antislavery movement. His first antislavery poem, “Greek Ode” treats African black slaves’ wretched situation, vengeance on slave traders, some vision of the abolition. In “Lecture on the Slave Trade” Coleridge lectured the crucial problems about slave trade and gave a commentary on why English people should abstain some products from West Indies. His masterpiece, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” demonstrates that every creature including African black slaves has equality and has to be harmony with the one another, which makes ‘One Life’ in the end. In Chapter Ⅲ, “Poems on the Slave Trade” and “To the Genius, Africa” concentrate on Southey’s subversion and justifiable violence against the slave traders and the pro-slavery campaigners. In these poems he tries to prompt an angry outburst from people in Africa and revenge the slave traders and pro-slavery campaigners. In “The Sailor Who had Served in the Slave Trade” Southey expresses that the victims of the slave trade are not only African slaves but also slave traders after all. Chapter Ⅳ designates Barrett Browning’s transatlantic antislavery movement in America. In “The Runaway Slave At the Pilgrim''s Point” and “A Curse for a Nation” she reports that a curse will belong to America and American people because they have still kept the slavery in America for their fortune for a long time. In these poems Barrett Browning tries to achieve equal opportunity and eligibility to write about antislavery and abolish the slavery system for liberty and equality.