371 Robert Hayden and the Nature of Freedom | PLUS Literary Zombies (with Scott G. Bruce)
The History of Literature
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Frederick Douglas, the World of a Slave
This is from written in the 19 sixties, a hundred years after the emancipation proclamation. As the country has lived through the aftermath of that, the freeing of the slaves. Black people at the back of the bus, not allowed in diners and not allowed in restaurants throughout the south. 100 years of that, including 50 or so of robert hayden's life,. The part of that history that he himself witnessed and endured. We know it from the l and the author alone. And the first lines are, when it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful and terrible thing.
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