3/2 Discussion

During Wednesday's class we were able to talk in our groups about our separate topics and I was in group 1 were we got to compare Dunbar’s writing to past writing. The past writers all wrote about their home country and some referenced Ethiopia as well. We looked at Phillis Wheatly, Venture Smith, and Frances Harper. Dunbar wrote in a different time period than the earlier writings we read and this lead to a different point of view for him. It seemed like he was very optimistic in his poem “Ode to Ethiopia” where he talks about how there’s hope for Ethiopia and the people that live there. Compared to the other writings they seemed like all was lost in Ethiopia and things would never change for the better and would end up as slaves or worse for the rest of their lives. The end of slavery had happened between the writings of Dunbar and the others, and this really made a difference in their opinions. The other main difference between the writers was that Dunbar was born in the United States compared to both Smith and Wheatly whom were born in Africa. Harper was born in the United States but was born into slavery. It’s hard to compare these writings because of the big differences between the writers and in particular the time period between the two.