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Sabina Nunn
April 6, 2015
Professor Kingsley
English 123 – 8774
Preserving the Memory of Slavery
Langston Hughes was a progressive poet for African-American rights of the
1920’s. His compelling work left a huge impression on those who read it. A reoccurring
theme in Hughes’ poetry concerns the preservation of the African-American slave past.
Two poems that clearly encompass this theme are, “Aunt Sue’s Stories” and “The Negro
Mother”. Through his poetry, Hughes stresses that remembering the past is a vital
component in creating a better future for African-Americans.
Langston Hughes’ “Aunt Sue’s Stories” (CP 24) is about an older relative, Aunt
Sue, who is telling her young nephew stories of her slave past. This nephew was never
enslaved and born free, and his elder’s voice is the only way he can hear of slavery. The
speaker states that Aunt Sue had a “whole head full of stories” and a “whole heart full of
stories.” Hughes states that her head is full of stories because it gives Aunt Sue credibility
- these are facts; he states that she has a whole heart full of stories because it not only
adds emotion and intensity, but it grows a personal connection to the readers. It is from
this intersection of the head and heart that Aunt Sue begins to tell the stories of her past
where “[b]lack slaves/wor[k] in the hot sun” (CP 24). There is a lot of tension in this
story-poem because there is beauty in sharing the past with future generations colliding
with sadness of slavery embedded in Hughes’ words:
Singing sorrow songs on the banks of a mighty river
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In the flow of old Aunt Sue's voice,
Mingle themselves softly
In the dark shadows that cross and recross
Aunt Sue's stories. (CP 24)
Through Aunt Sue, the stories of the slave past “mingle themselves softly”; slaves are
kept alive through her voice. Hughes’ speaks of dark shadows, which are the memories
and stories of the slavery that faintly continue to haunt the next generation. Sharing the
past causes this new, young, and emancipated generation to “cross and recross” with their
ancestors and a history of enslavement. Hughes’ is using this poem to show the beauty of
sharing the past with the future African-Americans.
In Hughes’ “The Negro Mother” (CP pg#), an African-American mother is
addressing her “children” by also telling stories about the past. The “mother” figure, that
is the speaker of the poem, is the slaves: the past generations of African-Americans who
suffered and fought solely for freedom for their race. He uses a “mother” figure because
he is directly addressing the young African-Americans of that time. Hughes’ begins
with:
Children, I come back today
To tell you a story of the long dark way
That I had to climb, that I had to know
In order that the race might live and grow.
This mother isn’t addressing her biological children, or any children in particular, but
instead she is addressing the entire group of African-American future generations; this
woman is speaking to the young African-Americans who are her descendants. The
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speaker of the poem is telling this group of “children” that there is a dark past that was
overcome in order to have African-Americans flourish and thrive in freedom. This idea is
also reiterated later in the poem:
Now, through my children, young and free,
I realized the blessing deed to me.
But I had to keep on till my work was done:
I had to keep on! No stopping for me I was the seed of the coming Free.
I nourished the dream that nothing could smother
Deep in my breast - the Negro mother.
Hughes is attempting to connect African-Americans to their ancestors who were
enslaved. These slaves persevered in hope of one day being emancipated. By preserving
the memory of these past generations, the hardships that they faced are given meaning
and their dreams are fulfilled through the freedom of their offspring. However, the
speaker of the poem stresses that her work is not yet finished:
Remember my years, heavy with sorrow And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
Make of my pass a road to the light
Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.
Lift high my banner out of the dust.
Stand like free men supporting my trust.
Believe in the right, let none push you back.
Remember the whip and the slaver's track.
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The speaker is telling these young African-Americans, who never experienced slavery, to
reflect on the slave past to continue their legacy of fighting for equality. She states that
the previously enslaved African-Americans sorrow and despair should be motivation to
resist oppression and battle for freedom. Hughes’ major theme of this poem is preserving
the memory of the past.
Glenn Jordan, author of the article “Re-membering the African-American Past”,
explored and interpreted the works of African-American artists and poets during a
monumental time he refers to as “The Negro Movement of the 1920’s” or more
commonly known as the Harlem Renaissance. In his article, Jordan states that
participants in the first Black arts movement produced work that gleamed with innovation
yet, also was doused with history and memory. He coins the term “collective memory”
and says it is a major theme in the art and poetry of this time period. Jordan defines
“collective memory” as the collective memory of the African-American people-memory
of Africa the slave trade, the plantation, day-to-day oppression. He too chose to dissect
two of Langston Hughes’ poems in his essay, “The Negro Mother” and “Aunt Sue’s
Stories”, and use them as evidence to demonstrate this idea of “collective memory”.
In both of these poems by Hughes’ the speakers are women, but not just any
women, but women who have experienced slavery and all the abuse and rape that went
along with it. With the abolishment of slavery only two generations away, “Aunt Sue”
and “The Negro Mother” would have connected with all African-Americans and evoked
strong feelings because they were mothers and wives or grandmothers and aunts of the
African-Americans of that moment in time. According to Jordan, the common response
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to this “collective memory”, and slavery in general, gravitated towards silence, anger and
shame. However, as Jordan explains in the article, Hughes is trying to radiate away from
these feelings and recognize that the largest piece of the African-American “collective
memory” is a history of survival.
In the article, “Aunt Sue’s” purpose is revealed- to tell all African-Americans to
keep their “collective memory” alive. When Jordan dives into “The Negro Mother” he
describes her as an ancestral figure, whose spirit lives on, returns to talk to her “children”.
Jordan translates her intentions for us, “Her message is that we Black subjects living in
the present must keep the dream alive, marching ever forward, resisting whatever
obstacles White power puts in our way”. Hughes used “The Negro Mother” and “Aunt
Sue” to reveal to all African-Americans that because of their “collective history”, the
sacrifices made in the past by their ancestors, they can be free. Throughout the article,
Jordan also reports that Hughes, along with many other African-American artists of the
1920’s, was trying to create a “New Negro”. Jordan believes that the “New Negro”
generation that Langston Hughes was trying to mold, was one that remembered their
tragic past, or the tragic past of their ancestors, and use that as ammunition to persevere,
because they had preserved for over three hundred years.
Saddik Mohamed Gohar, author of the article “Subverting the History of Slavery
and Colonization in the Poetry of M. Al-Fayturi and Langston Hughes”, agrees with
Jordan Glenn in regards to memory and the slave past were recurrent themes in the works
of Harlem Renaissance artists. However, he believes these themes are present for
additional reasons. In “Aunt Sue’s Stories”, the speaker gives her a great deal of respect
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and credibility because she, “never got her stories out of no book at all, but they came
right out of her own life”. The “book” that she didn’t get her slave stories out is referring
to a textbook of some sort that would have been written by a white man who never
experienced what slavery was like first hand. Gohar states that Hughes poetry were
efforts to revise and rewrite the history of slavery from the viewpoint of the oppressed.
As stated by Gohar, “Hughes’ Harlem Renaissance poetry not only condemns
white oppression but also refutes the oppressor’s narratives of inferiority which aimed to
banish black people outside human history”. In essence, an entire race of people had
faced hundreds of years of abuse and Hughes’ was not going to let anyone downplay or
try to erase that suffering; he was going to ensure slavery was told in the voice and from
the memories of those who experienced it. Gohar does agree with Glenn in regards to the
theme of “survival”, writing that Hughes’ emphasizes that “The Negro Mother” had been
humiliated and persecuted but “slavery did not break her”. Both Glenn and Gohar state
that Hughes’ poetry urges African-Americans to continue to fight for their freedom.
Sangita Mehata gives her explanation for the images of slavery and memory in
Hughes’ poetry in the journal article titled “A Tale of Slavery Through Hughes’ Poetry”.
Mehata arrives at the conclusion that what intrigues readers about African-American
poetry is that it is grounded in the unique experience of its people. She states that
Hughes’ chooses to focus more on the African-American experiences that occurred on
American soil in order to claim what Mehata calls “American Identity”. In the article, the
idea arises that Hughes’ fought to earn a widespread understanding that AfricanAmericans are Americans too. Mehata concludes stating that Hughes stresses the
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importance of remembering the slave past is to remind generations, that they have fought
for their right to be a free in this country.
In conclusion, Jordan, Gohar, and Mehata have all recognized a reoccurring
theme of remembering the African-American slave past in Langston Hughes’ poetry.
They would all agree that Hughes’ was reaching out to the large demographic of young
African-Americans who had no experience of slavery. Jordan and Gohar strongly
believed that the suffering of those who were once enslaved is remembered in order to
also remember survival; because African-Americans had survived for three centuries,
they most certainly have the capacity and strength to continue to fight for their equality.
Mehata had somewhat similar ideas reflected in her essay, however, she strongly
maintains the opinion that Hughes’ was attempting to achieve an “American identity” for
African-Americans; Mehata states that this was done through remembering the past of
slavery and understanding that this earned all African-Americans a place in this country.
Nonetheless, in Langston Hughes’ poetry, remembering the slave past is a widely
accepted theme among scholars.