Analysis ranges from line 111, "He was a colored man who had been a slave," to line 174, "THAN TO LIVE SLAVES.."
Poem Annotations & Analysis:
He was a colored man who had been a slave
But had run away to freedom.
And the slaves knew
What Frederick Douglass said was true.
Hughes connects more with the African American race by using this quote about freedom from Frederick Douglass. Before the slaves would hold freedom in their hearts (the internal), but now they know that it is true. They are now thinking about taking action. From this line forward, Hughes begins to take more of a side towards the Black race than he did before in this poem.
With John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, Negroes died.
It's important to note that Hughes grew up with the belief that his grandmother's first husband, Lewis Leary, was shot at John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Young Hughes would sleep under Leary's shawl because he believed that the small hole in it was the place where Leary was mortally wounded-though the scholarly consensus believe the hole to be caused by moths. He did this to remind himself to do something meaningful like Leary's attempt to free the enslaved. John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry was inspired by militant abolitionism with the intent to kill White slave owners. Yet, Hughes still takes on a neutral tone as he did with the other figures he mentioned before-such as the White settlers, slave owners, Thomas Jefferson, etc. This is Hughes saying again that freedom is still freedom no matter the terms. Could this be Hughes trying to inconspicuously shift the poem's peaceful, unifying narrative?
John Brown was hung.
Before the Civil War, days were dark,
Here, Hughes makes comparisons with another war-the Civil War. It foils the patriotism and unity that he's advocating for in WWII. Mentioning the Civil War also brings up the Double V complex of Black Americans fighting a two-front war during WWII with other countries and the racial injustice back at home. In addition, the darkness of the Civil War provides a turn for the poem as Hughes brings awareness to the struggle of African Americans in slavery. Before, the poem suggested that the enslaved were meek, but now Hughes shows that their internal belief of freedom eventually led to war. In addition, the White race may argue that the days before the Civil War were better than the days after Reconstruction when the Union army destroyed their economically booming plantation system. Before Hughes created no power dynamics between the races or took a side, However, Hughes now establishes that slavery was worse than what White Americans faced.
And nobody knew for sure
When freedom would triumph
'Or if it would,' thought some.
But others new it had to triumph.
In those dark days of slavery,
The disunity during segregation and WWII is being compared with American disunity to the "dark days of slavery."
Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,
The slaves made up a song:
Keep Your Hand On The Plow!
Keep Your Hand on the Plow, or the Gospel Plow, spiritual is what this poem is structured around. By keeping their hands on the plow, the Americans are working on their unity with each other. By alluding and incorporating this spiritual into a poem speaking about the fundamental democratic structures of America, Hughes is showing that the oppressed have the same right to be free as America's White founders.
Hold On!
That song meant just what it said: Hold On!
Freedom will come!
The spiritual is saying "hold on" to the internal hope of liberty. Eventually, it will produce external results of freedom just as the Revolutionary War and Civil War did. Just as WWII and the war against racism will.
Keep Your Hand On The Plow!
Hold On!
Out of war it came, bloody and terrible!
But it came!
Again, readers are given a slight hint that Hughes’ poem may carry more of a non-peaceful message than he previously began with. With the acceptance of the “bloody and terrible” war, Hughes basically says that it was necessary for freedom. Therefore, another theme of "Freedom's Plow" is that it is okay to go to war for freedom-just like it was okay to do in the Revolutionary and Civil War. This also relates to the sentiments of 1943 with WWII fighting for freedom against the Axis Powers. Readers of that time could use these lines as a patriotic statement to be unified and carry on against a common enemy.
Some there were, as always,
Who doubted that the war would end right,
Before there has been no judgment by Hughes, but now he writes about the righteous morality of those who support freedom for the oppressed.
That the slaves would be free,
Or that the union would stand,
But now we know how it all came out.
Out of the darkest days for people and a nation,
We know now how it came out.
There was light when the battle clouds rolled away.
There was a great wooded land,
Hughes repeats the “great wooded land” line from stanza one in order to show how America’s fight toward inclusion is more aligned with their fundamental values of freedom rather than their racial segregationist ideology.
And men united as a nation.
At this time, the United Nations was signing countries up as a global pact against the Axis Powers.
America is a dream.
The poet says it was promises.
The people say it is promises-that will come true.
The "poet" that he references are the writers who he previously mentioned. Jefferson spoke of freedom, but still enslaved Black people. Lincoln spoke of freedom and helped free most of the enslaved, but not all. Douglass helped inspire slaves with his stories. Black workers helped inspire freedom by singing their Gospel Plow spiritual. It is through the democratic action of the people's 1st amendment when Americans can aspire to have authentic freedom.
The people do not always say things out loud,
African Americans were not able to read and write at the time of slavery, so their spirituals were often ways of expressing their deepest thoughts. Here, Hughes is saying that even though the oppressed may not be able to express their thoughts in a professionally "normative" way as Jefferson, Lincoln, and Douglass could, they still deserved freedom just as much.
Nor write them down on paper.
The people often hold
Great thoughts in their deepest hearts
And sometimes only blunderingly express them,
Haltingly and stumblingly say them,
And faultily put them into practice.
The people do not always understand each other.
But there is, somewhere there,
Always the trying to understand,
And the trying to say,
You are a man.
Hughes goes back to freedom being a primal or “inalienable right"-it’s something that humans must have regardless of status. In this case, when African Americans gain freedom they are able to contribute even more to American society.
Together we are building our land.'
America!
Land created in common,
Dream nourished in common,
Not only is Hughes fighting for American togetherness, but he is also fighting for American commonality. This goes back to the first stanzas of when the hypothetical citizens looked internally into themselves and saw that they wanted the same thing, which made them able to build the land with their countrymen.
Keep your hand on the plow!
Hold on!
If the house is not yet finished,
Don’t be discouraged, builder!
If the fight is not yet won,
Don’t be weary, soldier!
The plan and the pattern is here,
Woven from the beginning
Into the warp and woof of America:
Hughes means the weaving foundation of a structure. In this case, the spirit of freedom becomes the foundation to fight for freedom in America and on the world stage.
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
Hughes compares these different interpretations of America to instill that they all believed in living in a free, democratic American society.
NO MAN IS GOOD ENOUGH
TO GOVERN ANOTHER MAN WITHOUT
HIS CONSENT.
BETTER DIE FREE,
THAN TO LIVE SLAVES.
Summary:
At first, Hughes did not choose a side or judge anyone's morality. However, he now starts to side with the oppressed and determines that going to war for them is just as righteous as going to war for the White American settlers. He gives examples and raises sentiments to how White Americans defeated their monarchy oppressor, then he shows how those same principles apply to the African Americans' attempt to defeat their White oppressor. All the while, he relates it to their ongoing WWII efforts to establish patriotism, which would hopefully coax American togetherness and unity in nonbelievers.
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