Hannah More: life, work, and literary influence

Hannah More

Like many abolitionists, Hannah More built her philosophy on a firm foundation of religion and spiritual thought. Her poems "Sensibility" and "The Slave Trade" present imagery related to spiritual concepts and ideals that she uses to persuade a sensible Christian audience against the slave trade. More crafts her abolitionist poetry around philosophical ideals as well as spiritual ones, and the poet appeals to reason as much as to emotion. In her poem "Sensibility: An Epistle to the Honourable Mrs. Boscawen," More emphatically elevates sensibility above religiosity: "if RELIGION'S bias rule the soul, / Then SENSIBILITY exalts the whole," (353-4). More elaborates on the theme of distorted religion throughout "The Slave Trade," by accusing proponents of slavery of arrogance, "insulted reason," and "natural evils," (141; 156). However, More's argument is rooted in sensibility, that elusive quality that, like God, cannot be defined. More describes sensibility like she would describe God: "Sweet SENSIBILITY! Thou secret pow'r / shedd'st thy gifts upon the natal hour," (231-232). In "The Slave Trade" More describes LIBERTY in similar terms, as a "light" to "shine on all," (2). Thus, More likens SENSIBILITY to LIBERTY. Liberty, like sensibility, resembles God as a "penetrating essence," (6). The elusive natures of both sensibility and liberty also make the concepts similar to God. For example, in her ode to sensitivity, the poet states, "Thy subtle essence still eludes the chains / Of definition," (235-236). By drawing connections between freedom, reason, and religion in "The Slave Trade," More suggests that slavery exists in the absence of God and in the absence of sensibility.

Liberty and sensibility are God-given qualities, spiritual essences that grace human beings on Earth. The first stanza of "The Slave Trade" describes LIBERTY as a heavenly emanation, a "bright intellectual sun," with "subtle and ethereal beams," (3; 8). The solar imagery used to describe freedom continues in Stanza 2: "Was it decreed, fair Freedom! At thy birth, / That thou shou'd'st ne'er irradiate all the earth?" From here, More asks a "sober Goddess" why such a glorious solar light, a heavenly quality like the sun, would not shine on the whole planet. Liberty, More notices, applies only to parts of God's creation, and has overlooked Africa and the African people. More finds her answer in the "mad Misrule" of the slaveholder (24). Slavery is a distortion of the divine by oppressive human beings.

Liberty and sensibility are heavenly, God-given concepts. Therefore, any absence of liberty and sensibility implies the absence of God. Throughout "The Slave Trade," More describes slavery an affront to divine nature, by alluding to the ways slave owners use Christianity to back up their oppressive practice. More notes that the institution of slavery has been paradoxically perpetrated by Christians and justified in the name of God. To emphasize the sacrilegious nature of slavery, More evokes horrific imagery in Stanza 8. The poet describes burning villages, shrieking babies, and distressed mothers and accuses the perpetrators of "murder." These brutal acts were committed in the name of God but embody the absence of true spirituality. Rather, they represent "the basest appetite of basest souls," (128).

In "The Slave Trade," More repeatedly disparages the distorted belief that God condones the institution of slavery. For example, the poet shows how slavery represents a distortion of God's word: "To tread on grave Authority and Pow'r, / And shake the work of ages in an hour," (29-30). In other words, by holding people captive, slave owners undo centuries of human intellectual and spiritual progress. Next, More suggests that the philosophies used to justify slavery are in themselves erroneous: "Perish the proud philosophy, which sought / To rob them of the pow'rs of equal thought!" Any "proud philosophy" that promotes social inequity is irreligious as well as insensible. Such a philosophy is inherently arrogant, indicative of "A high, unbroken haughtiness of heart," (78).

Later, More evokes the Quakers to denote the ideal examples of Christian ideals. As early opponents of slavery, the Quakers epitomize the opposite of the aforementioned arrogance: "Still thy meek spirit in thy flock survives, / Consistent still, their doctrines rule their lives," (247-248). Here, More describes the Quakers with terms like "meek" to emphasize the importance of humility over arrogance. In spite of, or probably because of, their meekness, Quakers allow the essence of the Christian doctrine to "rule their lives," not a distorted doctrine as a slave owning Christian would. Therefore, liberty and abolition represent the true Christian doctrine, one based on humility, kindness, and liberty. More further denounces the professed spirituality of slave owners in the following stanza: "Thy followers only have effac'd the shame / Inscrib'd by SLAVERY on the Christian name," (249-250). Slavery has marred the name of Christianity because plantation owners avidly profess their connections to God. More tries to address the effacing of true Christianity in her poetry by employing religious imagery in connection with her discussion of libery. She sums up her abolitionist argument in the final three stanzas of "The Slave Trade." As her diction and tone become more passionate and evangelical, Hannah More lauds the power of Liberty as a quality of spiritual truth and as an ideal emanation of God.

Therefore, according to More, slavery is an aberration of spiritual truth and a distortion of Christian doctrine. However, More doesn't just cloak freedom and liberty in spiritual language. The poet also asserts that slavery is illogical and unreasonable. "Insulted Reason, loaths th' inverted trade," (141). In the same way that slavery represents an insult to Christianity, slavery also represents an insult to Reason and to Sensibility. Reason is also a function of spirituality, not distinct from it. More describes liberty and sensibility as both qualities of God and as qualities of MIND, thereby suggesting that MIND is also a quality of God. She begins the analogy in the first stanza of "The Slave Trade." Appealing to the divine rays of liberty, the narrator asks, "Since there is no convexity in MIND, / Why are thy genial beams to parts confin'd?" The "genial beams" are those of liberty; the "parts confin'd" refer to the Southern slaveholding states. Like God, Mind and its corollary Reason extend to all human beings, not just members of the white races. The southern states are described as "fierce Faction's tool" because of their stubborn retention of slavery and their willful secession from the Union (23). Finally, More underscores the connection between freedom and reason, slavery and ignorance, by claiming that the institution of slavery denotes "rejecting Reason's rein," (25).

More describes sensibility and reason using similar terms and imagery; the two terms become almost interchangeable. For example, sensibility and reason both mean sympathy and compassion for the plight of the slave. In her poem "Sensibility," More notes that sensibility is "always apt to choose the suff'ring side," (246). Slaves definitely denote the "suff'ring side." Sensibility also promotes a "prompt sense of equity," (243). In "The Slave Trade," More states that slavery is the opposite of equity, as slavery entails an inequitable distribution of freedom among human beings. Furthermore, More connects sensibility and liberty when More describes sensibility as "unprompted moral," ("Sensibility" 238). An unprompted moral is an innate quality, much like a divine gift. Because liberty was also described as a divine emanation, More links liberty with sensibility and suggests that abolition emanates from the heart, spontaneously, through a true connection with the divine.