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Whitman,
Slavery, and the Emergence of Leaves of Grass
Martin Klammer
1995
History - American, Literature - American
Paperback: $21.95 SH
ISBN: 978-0-271-02499-8
Although
the significance of Walt Whitman's thinking about African Americans
and slavery to his poetry has been largely ignored by Whitman scholars,
Martin Klammer argues that Leaves of Grass is a major text
dealing with race relations in the mid-nineteenth century. Through
a close historical analysis, Klammer reveals how the evolution of
Whitman's attitudes—from pro-slavery to "free soilism" to a deep
sympathy for slaves—parallels and inspires his emergence as a
poet from the beginning of his career through the 1855 edition. The
issue of slavery continually influenced Whitman's work, culminating
in 1854 when public reaction to two national developments on the slavery
question—the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the case
of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns—suddenly created an audience
more receptive to Whitman's views and compelled him to revise and
publish the poems known as Leaves of Grass.
At the heart of these poems is a radically new and sympathetic
view of African Americans and of their significance to Whitman's
vision of a multiracial, egalitarian society. While previous critics
have described Whitman's puzzling, seemingly contradictory views
on slavery, no other study has so thoroughly investigated Whitman
and the question of slavery, nor understood the importance of slavery
to Whitman's development as a poet.
Martin
Klammer is Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies
at Luther College.
