# Free Labor explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

## What happens

The speaker reflects on wearing a garment untainted by the suffering of enslaved people, emphasizing that it carries no tears, blood, or cries of anguish. The fabric is too light to bear the weight of oppression, and the speaker asserts that it will not witness against them at God's throne for supporting injustice.

## Themes in this chapter

### Slavery and Oppression

The poem directly addresses the suffering of enslaved people, describing tears, blood, and anguish woven into garments produced by their labor.

### Social Injustice and Class

The speaker contrasts their own 'easy garment' with the exploitation of enslaved workers, highlighting the injustice of a system that benefits the oppressor.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown Narrator

The speaker who describes wearing a garment free from the stains of slavery and oppression.

## Key lines

> I wear an easy garment, O’er it no toiling slave Wept tears of hopeless anguish, In his passage to the grave.

I wear a comfortable garment that was not made by a suffering slave who cried in despair as he neared death.

_The speaker emphasizes that their clothing is free from the misery of enslaved labor._

> And from its ample folds Shall rise no cry to God, Upon its warp and woof shall be No stain of tears and blood.

No cry to God will come from its folds, and its threads will bear no marks of tears or blood.

_The garment is untainted by the suffering that would otherwise cry out for divine justice._

> This fabric is too light to bear The weight of bondsmen’s tears, I shall not in its texture trace The agony of years.

This cloth is too delicate to carry the heavy burden of enslaved people's tears, and I will not find the pain of years woven into its texture.

_The speaker asserts that the garment is morally clean, lacking the history of oppression._

> Too light to bear a smother’d sigh, From some lorn woman’s heart. Whose only wreath of household love Is rudely torn apart.

It is too light to hold a stifled sigh from a lonely woman whose only family joy has been violently destroyed.

_The garment cannot contain the grief of a mother or wife separated from her loved ones by slavery._

> And witness at the throne of God, In language deep and strong, That I have nerv’d Oppression’s hand, For deeds of guilt and wrong.

And testify before God's throne, in powerful words, that I have strengthened the hand of oppression for guilty and wrongful acts.

_The speaker warns that a garment stained by slavery would bear witness against the wearer in divine judgment._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_7_se/chapters/free-labor
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_7_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_7_se/chapters