Slavery in Massachusetts and Virginia: Whittier's poem and separated families

Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier wrote "Massachusetts to Virginia" specifically to decry the institution of slavery. When Whittier wrote the poem, the United States was very much and bitterly divided over the issue of whether the institution should still be allowed. As a Quaker, Whittier was passionately against slavery. Slavery was something so appalling that Whittier can hardly recognize the American spirit in the South. Using Virginia as a symbol of the slavery-supporting South, and Massachusetts as representative of the Free North, Whittier illustrates the great cultural divide in America that led to the Civil War.

In "Massachusetts to Virginia," Whittier refers to the old names for these colonies: Old Dominion for Virginia and the Bay State for Massachusetts. Whittier makes a clear judgment on the moral characters of these two regions of the United States. Old Dominion has lost its way; the pro-slavery South are "false to their fathers' memory," and also "false to the faith they loved," (line 30). The "fathers'" refers both to the symbolic "founding fathers" of the country but also literally to the fathers of those who fought in the Revolutionary War for freedom. Whittier points out that these same Americans champion freedom and liberty, while at the same time restricting the freedom and liberty of other people. Moreover, Whittier includes religion in his critique of Virginia. He states that the sons of Virginia are "false to the faith they loved," which is Christianity.

Instead of carrying the torch of freedom and liberty, as Massachusetts has attempted to do, Virginia has "scoffed at Freedom," (line 31). Whittier's tone is angry in "Massachusetts to Virginia," and rightly so. His country had descended from a position of hope and relative moral authority to one that was steeped in embarrassing hypocrisy. While Europeans abolished slavery, the United States clung to it. What's worse, notes Whittier, Virginians claim to be religious people. Using religious imagery of fire and brimstone to drive home his point, Whittier angrily claims that Massachusetts can and will remain strong in the face of Virginia's hypocrisy. By refusing to capture runaway slaves and return them to Old Dominion under the Fugitive Slave Act, residents of the Free North ally themselves with the true spirit of the Revolution. "Thank God! not yet so vilely can Massachusetts bow," (Whittier, line 37). Whittier wants to view Virginia as a "sister state," but is not willing to stoop to Virginia's level to do so," (line 41). To emphasize why he cannot abide by Old Dominion rules, Whittier mentions the evils of slavery such as the physical and emotional abuse. One of the most poignant lines in the poem is a scene at the slave market that Whittier describes. The poet writes about "the shambles where human flesh is sold," (line 50). Then, the poet uses some sarcasm and bitter tone to describe how a slave trader would "gloat o'er the new-born child, and count his market value," (line 51). The slave trader buys and sells newborn babies even while 'the maddened mother's cry of woe shall pierce the slaver's den," (line 52). The imagery of the mother and child being torn from one another is important to the poem because it underscores the inherent evil of slavery. The image has a tremendous impact on the reader, because it is a universal symbol of the terror of slavery.