Question

These questions are based off Francis Ellen Watkins Harper’s “Free Labor.”

In the first stanza of “Free Labor” Harper says that no toiling slave wept over her garment. What does she mean?

Boycotts are occasionally used as a protest. Sometimes people are asked to boycott a product made by a company that employs unfair labor practices or one that abuses the environment. In her poem, what is Harper suggesting that people boycott?

Answer 1

Harper suggests people boycott buying mainly cotton clothes made by slaves. Watkin Harper, the poet, was for the abolition of " Free Produce". This movement took place in the U.S in 1854. Through this poem, she is trying to persuade the readers to stop being an " accomplice" of slavery. In the American South , people are against slavery , yet they consume what the slaves manufacture. The poet says that the clothes -garment- she is wearing have not been made by hard -working salves in pain - no toiling slave wept over ..-