Declaration

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Slavery

Slavery is a complex topic in poetry written by and about Black people. Contemporary poetry by Black authors tries to balance grappling with history, uplifting Black voices, and exploring the everyday topics that poets of all backgrounds enjoy. This poem chooses not to meditate on this past but reframe how we view slavery from unending passive suffering to an institution that Black people actively fought against.

There are specific glimpses of the slave trade in the last three stanzas: “—taken Captive / on the high Seas / to bear—” (Lines 15-17). While the original document limits the words Smith uses, she also chooses against repeating the violence of slavery. This allows the reader to avoid the specific trauma of the institution and interpret instead what happened in the missing spaces.

Yet, if the reader knows the historical context of the “Declaration of Independence” and the subsequent slavery question in American history, “Declaration” recalls the victims of slavery in every line. Like everyday racial politics in the United States, the reader may only see what they feel comfortable with in the poem. “Declaration” challenges each reader to learn more and read deeper.

Petitions

The speakers in “Declaration” are not passive. Like the founding fathers, these figures speak for their people from the past, present, and future by petitioning the reader.

A petition is a formal written request to an authority figure, usually to make a change. Petition echoes back to the initial purpose of the “Declaration of Independence”: to remind King George III of the colonists’ rights and detail how his government disrespected these rights. Like this document, Smith’s “Declaration” is an announcement that past petitions failed and now she must make a more radical statement.

In that case, who wrote these past petitions? All prominent African American figures from Frederick Douglas to a mother standing up for her murdered child. Anyone who dealt with racism and decided to do something about it. The people who spoke for those who could not act. Smith evokes all these people so they may speak through her.

Redress

The poem’s speakers petitioned for redress “In every stage of these Oppressions” (Line 8). In the colonists’ case in the “Declaration of Independence” and speakers in “Declaration,” redress means relief from distress. Yet, the colonists suffered grievances from the king for about a decade before gaining independence through the help of powerful European allies. The speakers in “Declaration” suffer generations of injustice and inequity with themselves as allies. Because of continual oppression, they have no reason to trust current methods of redress.

Redress also means compensation for loss or reparations. The US government never properly offered reparations to formerly enslaved people. There remains a case for reparations to the ancestors of enslaved people. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a compelling article on this subject in 2014 titled “The Case of Reparations.”