Slavery: An Analysis Of Rungate Rungae Runagate By Robert Hayden

Slavery has been around for centuries at a time and its origin stretches far beyond that of slavery in America. The Africans that were taken from their homes and separated from their families and friends had to endure a horrendous life following their capture, one filled with torture, pain, and utter degradation. They were stripped of numerous aspects of their culture such as their religion and native tongue and more often than not, had to embark on a metaphorical trek in order to find their identity once again as their European and American masters slowly took away all that they once had and knew.

An enslaved African would need to have the determination and will to survive right from the start of their voyage to the New World. The journey

The consequences one could face for being caught while trying to run away and escape their master’s clutches could be viewed upon as worse. The slaves had to have an immense amount of courage and perseverance in order to attempt an escape because the punishment if caught were severe. Some would be raped and/or sexually assaulted or even have a limb severed. The prospects of freedom that the North provided often acted as more motivation to try and run away. In his prominent poem, Runagate Runagate, Robert Hayden writes, “I. Runs falls rises stumbles on from darkness into darkness and the darkness thicketed with shapes of terror and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing…” (Robert Hayden, Runagate Runagate) in which he illustrates the escape of a fugitive slave from his master. The escape is depicted as being terrifying and quite dangerous as the runaway slave hides away in the shadows to avoid capture, yet Hayden continues with the poem by adding the stirring statement “And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave.” This quote from Runagate Runagate further exemplifies the lengths to which those enslaved would go in order to achieve freedom, even if it could lead to death in the

The spirituals they sung sometimes out in the fields or inside their master’s homes while they were working were secretly embedded with messages that offered those willing to give their lives in pursuit of freedom a chance to escape slavery and travel north. One of the most renown spirituals is Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, in which the lyrics state, “Swing low, sweet chariot. Coming for to carry me home…” This spiritual along with many others not only expressed the slaves’ longing for freedom, but also offered an opportunity to have it. The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses and hidden escape routes that slaves could take to get to the free states and Canada. Harriet Tubman was one of the many “conductors” of the Underground Railroad and was often given the title of Moses because she aided her people to freedom much like the biblical Moses did for his people when helping them escape the persecution of the Egyptians. Tubman is an excellent example of the courage and intellect needed for one to survive while being a slave and Frederick Douglass personifies this when he says, “Excepting John Brown -- of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than [Harriet