Analysis ranging from the title, “Freedom’s Plow,” to its 47th line, “FREEDOM.”
Title Analysis: Why is it called “Freedom’s Plow?”
The title “Freedom’s Plow” employs personification to the word “freedom,” which means to be without control. Hughes essentially turns “freedom” into a person. Freedom is also a possessive noun, meaning that it figuratively owns a plow.
A plow is a farming tool with spikes or blades on the end. It is used to break up and loosen the soil (tilling) so that seeds can be planted there. Plowing churns any weeds, previous crops, and parasites further into the ground so that the other crop may grow unaffected by them. The workings of the plow can even serve as a metaphorical use in the poem as
Freedom-who is handling it-is breaking down all of the inadequate parts in the soil so that natural materials can flourish on the land. It’s also important to note that there are many types of plows, but the plow that Hughes refers to in this poem are the original ones that are manually operated by hand as he states in lines 48-49, “Down into the earth went the plow/In the free hands and the slave hands."
The literal translation of the title "Freedom's Plow" would be the plow that is owned by Freedom. Looking further, Hughes can be saying that Freedom is planting its liberating ideas into the soil of America. He may also be saying that Freedom represents the multicultural lot of Americans when they cultivated the land and ideas there during colonization. Even though there are many interpretations of the title’s exact meaning, readers can be sure that wherever the referenced plow goes, freedom will be instilled there.
Poem Annotations & Analysis:
When a man starts out with nothing,
When a man starts out with his hands
Empty, but clean,
When a man starts to build a world,
Hughes takes readers all the way back to the beginning of time in this stanza. He begins it similar to the biblical Creation Story, such as when God starts out with an empty space. In Hughes' poem, a man-possibly the first human man ever-also starts out with an empty space.
He starts first with himself
And the faith that is in his heart-
Instead of a higher power working, the reader sees the man reflecting on himself internally first ("the faith that is in his heart") in order to create his external world. “Freedom’s Plow” was written in a segregated World War II (WWII)-era America. With these verses, Hughes can be telling his readers that despite their racial differences, they should first consolidate their internal being-both spiritually and physically. It makes them all the same people. It would be harder for them to fight amongst themselves when they see themselves as the same people with the same goal.
The strength there,
The will there to build.
First in the heart is the dream-
Hughes is known for writing about the American Dream (hence his acclaimed Montage of A Dream Deferred poems), but here he illustrates how any dream of a civilization may begin. Through his literary Romanticist language, he describes that it happens by looking at the beauty and thinking about the possibilities of any unsettled world. Again, Hughes' character is looking internally before he decides to do anything externally.
Then the mind starts seeking a way.
His eyes look out on the world,
On the great wooded world,
These lines mimic the tone of Romanticism literature, which became a literary movement in the 1820s-1860s to "romanticize" the American landscape and the quest for a higher identity in the newly independent country. Even though Hughes uses fundamental American literature practices here, he has yet to mention America. Readers can assume that these stanzas are still about the uncultivated ancient worlds.
On the rich soil of the world,
On the rivers of the world.
The eyes see there materials for building,
By leaving off the article “are,” could Hughes be saying the word "there" as in "their?" The word “there” conveys a location for the building materials, but "their" personifies and gives possession to the eyes, showing the man’s strong determination for building up the land.
See the difficulties, too, and the obstacles.
The mind seeks a way to overcome these obstacles.
Hughes' theme of “Freedom’s Plow” is about overcoming racial division and increasing wartime hopes and productivity during WWII.
The hand seeks tools to cut the wood,
To till the soil, and harness the power of the waters.
Then the hand seeks other hands to help,
A community of hands to help-
Hughes writes the history of human development and advancements. By cutting the wood, he expresses the prehistoric Tool Age. By tilling the soil and harnessing the waters, he demonstrates the civilization-building practices in Ancient Mesopotamia. Seeking community shows their next move to urbanize and become a tighter-knit, working community. The act of overcoming obstacles reflects Hughes’ overall message by also showing that overcoming is an instinctual and primal human attribute. By tapping into human nature, Hughes argues that it is not natural for Americans to be as divided as they are-they will not survive as a civilization if they cannot work together.
Thus the dream becomes not one man’s dream alone,
There is no longer just one man, but people to help carry out this dream and make it possible.
But a community dream.
Not my dream alone, but our dream.
Not my world alone,
But your world and my world,
Belonging to all the hands who build.
A long time ago, but not too long ago,
Ships came from across the sea
Before Hughes illustrated how people cultivated the world, now he connects it to how they cultivated America. This stanza flashes forward in time to America's Colonial Age and the world's Age of Exploration. When European immigrants came to America, they were all seeking freedom despite their varying situations in life. Hughes describes the “salad bowl” metaphor of America. It’s important to note that some European immigrants were running from a confining situation. For example, Pilgrims are specifically European settlers who decided to deviate from the Anglican Church to practice their own version of Christianity-an act that would have been considered unlawful heretic behavior in their homeland. By stating these examples, Hughes attempts to appeal to the White reader's patriotic sentiments to find commonality with their history and the Black American experience.
Bringing the Pilgrims and prayer-makers,
Adventurers and booty seekers,
Free men and indentured servants,
Slave men and slave masters, all new-
Hughes places more emphasis on their newness rather than who they are. This has the same effect of “not seeing color,” which can be seen as erasure for many of modern society. However, in a segregated society, Hughes seems to believe that he would have more acceptance of his poem by emphasizing racial and class similarities rather than differences.
To a new world, America!
With billowing sails the galleons came
Bringing men and dreams, women and dreams.
In little bands together,
Hughes again shows that freedom begins internally. We have men, women, and dreams coming in small bands, which are all different, but they all reach into their hearts (which are internal and all the same) to complete their goals in America. It's important to note that the colonies did not see themselves as a collectively whole country, but they eventually joined together in order to gain their freedom from the British monarchy.
Heart reaching out to heart,
Hand reaching out to hand,
They began to build our land.
Some were free hands
Seeking a greater freedom,
Some were indentured hands
Hoping to find their freedom,
Some were slave hands
Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,
The enslaved guarding the "seed of freedom" shows that the freedom of the most oppressed is the truest form. This is proof that Hughes sees authenticity in the internal. Each of the people that Hughes named has a different reason for seeking freedom. However, again, they reach into their internal selves (“Heart reaching out to heart'') in order to reach out to each other (“Hand reaching out to hand”). The enumeration from the freest to less free again reminds readers of how varied American society is.
But the word was there always:
FREEDOM.
The capitalization of "FREEDOM" adds a declaration that freedom is still freedom no matter who is seeking it. This is to set the patriotic tone of the poem and Hughes’ way of showing that he is determined to see Americans united as the meaning of its founding principles would have it be.
Summary:
In these stanzas, Hughes illustrates world-building through well-known literary techniques, such as biblical and romanticism tone allusions. Using the “salad-bowl” concept, he describes how America was founded with many races, classes, and backgrounds, but is still ultimately a place for freedom.
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