Watkins (Harper) wrote to William Still earlier in 1858: “I might be so glad if it was only so that I could go home among my own kindred and people [in Maryland], but slavery comes up like a dark shadow between me and the home of my childhood. Well, perhaps it is my lot to die from home and be buried among strangers.” Then she included what later became the first stanza of her poem, “Bury Me in a Free Land.”
Abolitionists began organizing for immediate moral confrontation with slavery (what they termed “moral suasion”) under the leadership of editor William Lloyd Garrison in 1831 and with prodding from free black “vigilance” activists like David Walker and David Ruggles
SUBTEXT: Freedom or Family
Which voice or perspective might be the centerpiece of this poem?
Why were most fugitive slaves young, single men?
According to historian Kate Larson, what kinds of roles did women like Frances Watkins Harper play in the Underground Railroad?
