The Sentimental as Political in Slavery "A Poem" by Hannah More

“The true glory of a nation consists not in the extent of its territory… but in the extent of its mental power, the majesty of its intellect- the height and depth and purity of its nature.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hannah More, an important contributor to the British movement to abolish the Transatlantic Slave Trade, wrote Slavery: A Poem, published in 1787, to support her close friend, William Wilberforce. This poem was their way of engaging the public and winning hearts before attempting to confront the hostile pro-slavery Parliament. She demanded political action and mobilization by identifying her poetic voice with that of the “sober goddess” (19), and by invoking her muse, “fair Truth” (50), to inspire her writing. Through this poem, she questioned the nature of slavery in terms of colonialism, its economic practices, and the racial politics within Britain, which was supposedly the epitome of progress and empire.

More invoked the idea of the sentimental using three primary elements: religion, equality, and empathy. She spoke as a Christian to a Christian audience, relating to the divine authority of “Heaven” and its “Bright intellectual Sun!”. In lines 1-18, she asked rhetorical and metaphorical questions about the order of nature, inquiring why Black people were denied even the bare minimum of rights. Her use of capitalized words like “O LIBERTY!” (2) and “MIND” (11) reflected her exasperation and anger at the institution of slavery. Likewise, John Newton, an Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist, wrote to More in 1798 that religion alone could save the state from ruin. More’s poetry, influenced by Augustan poetics, also carried an ethical consideration rooted in a biblical consciousness, as noted by Patricia Demers.

In her poem, More highlighted sentiments like value/ethics and mercantile capitalism, while addressing domestic and familiar spaces. Mothers were separated from their children, wives from husbands, and Black women were subjected to sexual violence by white masters. By insisting on the common humanity of Africans, who shared a sacred image in God, she lashed out at the White Europeans who hid behind their so-called civilized state, disregarding their natural state. This disregard resulted in the suffering of slaves: insult, thirst, hunger, labor, strenuous work, burning, and whipping.

In the process, she adopted a Stoic-like view, portraying the slaves as wise and free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, echoing the philosophy propagated by Zeno in 300 B.C. She also reversed the binaries in her representation of the master as barbarous and the slave as honorable. More, in another poem titled The Sorrows of Yamba, Or, The Negro Woman’s Lamentation (1795), presented the emotive tale of a Negro woman who, separated from her family and sold into slavery, saw death as her only escape. In doing so, More utilized her feminine sensibility—something Kerri Andrews discussed in her essay, “Ann Yearsley and the London Newspapers in 1787”—as an important vehicle for social reform. This was part of the larger movement of Sentimentalism, where emotions and empathy called for political action.

More gendered the term “liberty” as feminine, questioning why Blacks were distinguished by their skin color—a trait that should never serve as a detriment to human classification. Her use of the word “skin” (64), often evoking violent and animalistic imagery, forced the reader to reconsider their views and led them to recognize the shared humanity of the enslaved. The otherwise slavery-tolerant reader would be guided toward sympathy and an acknowledgment of equal human rights.

Born in the parish of Stapleton near the port city of Bristol, where slaves often landed, More’s engagement with the question of slavery was not just theoretical but deeply rooted in experience. Her station in society allowed her to critique the fashionable norms of the elite, which she believed disregarded religious and moral considerations. This sentiment also informed her writing of Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great (1788), a subtle satire on the lives of the so-called Christians, using themes like the slave trade, redemption, and salvation.

Since Slavery: A Poem aimed to unite the collective consciousness of the public, its ending envisioned a future where slavery had already been abolished. The emotion of hope, progress, and freedom—linked with the Biblical phrase “Let there be light!”—would compel the reader to recognize his or her own humanity and work for the abolitionist cause.

More’s association with David Garrick, from whom she learned the art of theater and reader engagement, was a result of the literary movement known as Sentimentalism. This movement used emotions and imaginative empathy to call for political action, especially in response to the plight of those neglected by society. More made print capitalism her power, ensuring that once her words were printed, their meaning would remain in the public consciousness, ready to be interpreted and acted upon. Just because Africans did not have printed literature of their own did not rob them of the right to be remembered and valued. More planted in the reader’s mind deep loyalties and seething hatred for the institution of slavery, using sentimental language to raise critical questions about political engagement and human rights.

Bibliography

• Andrews, Kerri. “Ann Yearsley and the London Newspapers in 1787.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 34, no. 1, 2015, pp. 107–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43653303.
• Black, Joseph, et al. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration and The Eighteenth Century. Second Edition. “Slavery: A Poem,” by Hannah More. Buffalo: Broadview Press, 2012. Print.
• Mellor, Anne K. “Am I Not a Woman, and a Sister?: Slavery, Romanticism, and Gender.” Romanticism, Race, and Imperial Culture, 1780-1834, Alan Richardson and Sonia Hofkosh, eds. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1996, pp. 311-29. https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/harris/Rom_Grad/Readings/Mellor_Slavery.pdf.
• Mellor, Anne K. “The Female Poet and the Poetess: Two Traditions of British Women’s Poetry, 1780-1830.” Studies in Romanticism, vol. 36, no. 2, 1997, pp. 261–76. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/25601229.
• Myers, Mitzi. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 16, no. 2, 1997, pp. 397–400. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/464379.
• Roberts, William. Life and Correspondence of Hannah More, Vol. III. London: R. B. Skelley and W. Burnside, 1835. p. 133.
• S. J. Skedd, “More, Hannah (1745–1833)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).