# Then and Now explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

## What happens

This chapter contrasts the nation's founding ideals with its history of slavery and oppression, culminating in divine judgment and emancipation. It celebrates the progress made since slavery, honoring abolitionist heroes and calling for continued moral and spiritual advancement.

## Themes in this chapter

### Freedom and Liberation

The chapter celebrates the transition from chattel slavery to freedom, emphasizing divine intervention and human struggle.

### Social Injustice and Class

Highlights the historical oppression of Native Americans and African Americans, and the systemic wrongs of slavery.

### Faith and Divine Justice

God's wrath and judgment are portrayed as the force that breaks the chains of slavery and brings about liberation.

### Hope and Redemption

The chapter ends with a call to build a nobler future, grounded in love, peace, and righteousness.

## Character check-ins

### The People

The collective nation, built through struggle and oppression, now experiencing freedom.

### Mister Lincoln

Martyred President who rent the chains of slavery.

### John Brown

Martyred abolitionist who made the gallows an altar.

### Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author whose pen corroded the chains of fettered men.

### Frederick Douglass

Former slave who pleaded the cause with his broken chain.

### William Lloyd Garrison

Valiant and strong abolitionist whose face was as flint against wrong.

### Lucretia Mott

Woman who stood for freedom and equality.

### Lucy Stone

Simple name known to the world for her advocacy.

## Key lines

> Build me a nation true and strong, Bar out the old world’s hate and wrong

God commands the creation of a nation that rejects the hatred and injustice of the Old World.

_The founding vision of America as a place of refuge and righteousness._

> The Indian stood despoiled of lands, The Negro bound with servile bands

Native Americans were dispossessed and African Americans were enslaved.

_Acknowledges the dual oppression that marred the nation's history._

> Then God arose in dreadful wrath, And judgment streamed around his path; His hand the captive’s fetters broke, His lightnings shattered every yoke.

God's divine judgment and power shattered the chains of slavery.

_Divine intervention is credited with emancipation._

> Beings once chattles now are men

Those who were once property are now recognized as human beings.

_The fundamental change in legal and social status after emancipation._

> To-day no mother with anguish wild Kneels and implores that her darling child Shall not be torn from her bleeding heart

Mothers no longer have to beg for their children not to be sold away.

_The end of the slave trade's destruction of families._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_7_se/chapters/then-and-now
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_7_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_7_se/chapters