Identity, anxiety, and ambiguity within the eighteenth-century representation of the slave: Anna Letitia Barbauld, Hannah More, and Phillis Wheatley

Eighteenth-century poets, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Hannah More, and Phillis Wheatley represented the slave, contributing to the creation of an African identity that both challenged and affirmed the cultural perception of the African, the Other. I examined the poetry using the New Historical, Feminist, and Post-Colonial perspectives and considered the ways in which social assumptions and historical events influenced the writers in their representations of the African slave. Examining the poets' representations of the African slave allowed me to explore the act of representation and focus upon the contradictory assumptions and images that are involved with representation and its connection to the creation of identity. To understand the poets' representations of the African, it was necessary to consider their work within its historical context, particularly the eighteenth-century perceptions of ' race,' the African, and the abolitionist cause. Abolitionists attempted to create an alternative image of the African that focused upon shared human bonds and produced sympathy for the plight of the African. Barbauld's and More's poetry were written in an effort to create a sympathetic image of the African to convince the politicians to abolish Britain's participation in the slave trade; however, while speaking out against the slave trade, the two British poets created contradictory images and implied that the African belonged to an inferior ' race.' As an African native, Wheatley provides a contrast to Barbauld and More and their representations of the African which indicates that the voice of the Other is susceptible to contradictions, social assumptions, and conflicting images in the representation of the Other. Ultimately, the three women's poetry provides a case study by which to examine the conflicts and contradictions that are a part of the process of literary representation and the ways in which representation contributes to a conflicted identity.