AN ANAKYSIS OF WALT WHITMAN POEM'S "REVERSALS"

REVERSALS

Let that which stood in front go behind
Let that which was behind advance to the front
Let bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions
Let the old propositions be postponed
Let a man seek pleasure everywhere except in himself
Let a woman seek happiness everywhere except in herself


This poem is kind of metaphor in case of allegory. It is about changing of social condition in United States of America after the Civil War end and proclaimed Declaration of Emancipation. It is imaging the process of similarity of human degree between black people and white people. Line 1st and 2nd addressed to reconstruction in position. Before Declaration of Emancipation was proclaimed, black peoples are the slaves who have position in the back of white peoples. Then, in 3rd and 4th line is associating to the process of reconstruction in the freedom to have a notion. The “bigots, fools, unclean persons” (3rd line) refers to black peoples. A Negro must be made to work, and should always be given to understand that if he fails to perform his duty he will be punished for it (Stampp, 1956: 171 in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ slavery_in_the_United_States). Line 5th and 6th defined the similarity for every people to find the happiness in their life.

By the 18th century, court rulings established the racial basis of the American incarnation of slavery to apply chiefly to Africans and people of African descent, and occasionally to Native Americans. In part because of the Southern colonies' devotion of resources to tobacco culture, which was labor intensive, by the end of the 17th century they had a higher number and proportion of slaves than in the north (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29african.htm). From 1654 until 1865, slavery for life was legal within the boundaries. Most slaves were black and were held by whites.

Beginning in the 1750s, there was widespread sentiment during the American Revolution that slavery was a social evil (for the country as a whole and for the whites) and should eventually be abolished. All the Northern states passed emancipation acts between 1780 and 1804. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 declared all men "born free and equal". Throughout the first half of the 19th century, a movement to end slavery grew in strength throughout the United States. This struggle took place amid strong support for slavery among white Southerners, who profited greatly from the system of enslaved labor. After 1830, a religious movement led by William Lloyd Garrison declared slavery to be a personal sin and demanded the owners repent immediately and start the process of emancipation. The movement was highly controversial and was a factor in causing the American Civil War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_United_States).

Before the Civil War held, Lincoln said that “The feeling is against slavery, not against the South. The war has educated our people into abolition, and they deny that slaves can be property. For two hundred years the whole country has treaded the slaves as property. The black must be freed. Slavery is the bone we are fighting over. It must be go out of the way to give us permanent peace, and we have to fight this war till the South is subjugated.” (http://wwww.recollectedworsofabrahamlincoln.org/p.174.htm).

On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the Emancipation to abolish slavery. According to the Census of 1860, this policy would free nearly four million slaves, or over 12% of the total population of the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ History_of_slavery_in_the_United_States).

After Declaration of Emancipation proclaimed, the government did the reconstruction to the black peoples especially in sharecropping and education. In 1867 federal law prohibited a descendant form of slavery known as sharecropping or debt bondage. Between 1903 and 1944, the Supreme Court ruled on several cases involving debt bondage of black Americans, declaring these arrangements unconstitutional. In actual practice, however, sharecropping arrangements often resulted in peonage for both black and white farmers in the South. In education, on 1832 the government made Anti-literacy law. Consequently, many religious organizations, former Union Army officers and soldiers, and wealthy philanthropists were inspired to create and fund educational efforts specifically for the betterment of African Americans in the South. They helped create normal schools to generate teachers. Stimulated by the work of educators such as Dr. Booker T. Washington, by the first part of the 20th century over 5,000 local schools had been built for blacks in the South (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_ in_the_United_States).