Frances E. W. Harper was a well-respected writer and activist. She was considered one of the most popular and scholarly African American writers during the nineteenth century. Although Harper was born to free parents’ her literature focused on slavery and the many effects that it had on African-American women. She is also known to have produced antebellum and militant literature. In Harper’s literature, she showed an increasingly large amount of interest in the African-American woman’s life and position in the United States as a slave. Harper visually captures the effects of slavery on African-American women in her work titled The Slave Mother. In this piece, Harper delves into the emotional and mental state of a woman subject to slavery. Her strategy is to use highly emotiona

l terms to depict the painful effects of slavery on Black women.

The first term chosen by Harper in this selection is “They”. This term is used to imply that it is more than one person involved. Harper also uses this term to imply that “they” consist of all the people involved in the institution of slavery. The next term used is “tear”. This word is very important in that it creates an emotional tie to the situation. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, “tear” means to separate forcefully. With only two terms, Harper has created a scene where a group of people is forcefully disrupting a situation. The next term is “him” which allows the reader to understand who “They” are forcefully separating. “From” is chosen by Harper as the next word to indicate that “him” had a starting point. This starting point is described by the next term “her”. The next expression used is “circling”. This expression is used to create a sense of wholeness,

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