In Hannah More’s 1788 abolitionist work “Slavery: A Poem,” she writes “The unconquered savage laughs at pain and toil, / Basking in Freedom’s beams which gild his native soil… // And thou, white savage…” on lines (123-125). Within these lines, she utilizes the word “savage” twice to refer to white people. This word choice serves as a reversal of roles, framing white people as the barbarians rather than black people. White people had been describing black people using terms such as “savages” for years as a means of justifying slavery. By calling them savage, white people created a subcategory of “lesser” humans and forced black people into them. If black people could be considered less-than-human, or beasts, white people could feel better about enslaving them and treating them poorly. More’s reversal of roles serves as a psychological attack against people who support slavery, ultimately contributing to the propagandist nature of the poem as a whole.
White, anti-abolition readers who remain “unconquered” feel what it is like to be dehumanized while being fully human. Being insulted the same way they insult black people (being called a savage) may evoke empathy in some of them, allowing them to see how unjust it is to have their human status unrightfully stripped away from them. More’s use of the word “savage” also points out the hypocrisy among supporters of slavery. More hints that the more white people treat black people like they are savages, the more savage they themselves become. What makes someone less human is not the color of their skin, but their cruel treatment of those around them. In other words, one who dehumanizes others is only ultimately dehumanizing themself.
The effect these lines of the poem have on white readers who are anti-abolitionist is one that elicits feelings of empathy, guilt, and shame. Perhaps some of these readers will have an epiphany, finally realizing how supporting slavery has turned them into barbaric monsters. The final line of the poem, line 226, states that “Conquest is pillage with a nobler name!” Anti-abolitionists’ reasons for slavery, the idea that black people are subhuman and that conquest is noble, are revealed by More to simply be savage justifications. The other purpose of these lines is to rally support against anti-abolitionists by insulting them and separating them from abolitionists. More unites people who are anti-slavery by revealing that there is a “bad guy” and they deserve to understand what it feels like to be “conquered.”