Longfellow is known for several famous poems in American literature, especially “The Song of Hiawatha” and “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Before these poems, however, he wrote “The Witnesses.” The poem is an example of American Gothic, fitting in with writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The poem has some gore and a supernatural element, both used as literary devices to deliver a message to the reader. Longfellow does not mention plantations or overseers, instead, he focuses on another aspect of slavery that he finds (like Newton) to be important: the slave trade. This may be, at first glance, just a rather unsettling poem, but it could be argued that Longfellow is aiming at something much deeper. For him, the symbolism is the key to the message about the wrongs of slavery. The story in his poem is not an ordinary occurrence for most people. What does he use as a symbol in the poem? What are the deeper messages from these “witnesses”?
In Ocean's wide domains
Half buried in the sands,
Lie skeletons in chains,
With shackled feet and hands.
Beyond the fall of dews,
Deeper than plummet lies,
Float ships, with all their crews,
No more to sink nor rise.
There the black Slave-ship swims,
Freighted with human forms,
Whose fettered, fleshless limbs
Are not the sport of storms.
These are the bones of Slaves;
They gleam from the abyss;
They cry, from yawning waves,
"We are the Witnesses!"
Within Earth's wide domains
Are markets for men's lives;
Their necks are galled with chains,
Their wrists are cramped with gyves.
Dead bodies, that he kite
In deserts makes its prey;
Murders, that with affright
Scare school-boys from their play!
All evil thoughts and deeds;
Anger, and lust, and pride'
The foulest, rankest weeds,
That choke Life's groaming tide!
These are the woes of Slaves;
They glare from the abyss;
They cry from unknown graves,
"We are the Witnesses!"
Half buried in the sands,
Lie skeletons in chains,
With shackled feet and hands.
Beyond the fall of dews,
Deeper than plummet lies,
Float ships, with all their crews,
No more to sink nor rise.
There the black Slave-ship swims,
Freighted with human forms,
Whose fettered, fleshless limbs
Are not the sport of storms.
These are the bones of Slaves;
They gleam from the abyss;
They cry, from yawning waves,
"We are the Witnesses!"
Within Earth's wide domains
Are markets for men's lives;
Their necks are galled with chains,
Their wrists are cramped with gyves.
Dead bodies, that he kite
In deserts makes its prey;
Murders, that with affright
Scare school-boys from their play!
All evil thoughts and deeds;
Anger, and lust, and pride'
The foulest, rankest weeds,
That choke Life's groaming tide!
These are the woes of Slaves;
They glare from the abyss;
They cry from unknown graves,
"We are the Witnesses!"