credit: sonofthesouth.com
Lorna Goodison’s poem, “A Celebration of Emancipation,” deals with the Emancipation Act of 1834 which abolished slavery in the English colonies of the Caribbean, but did not grant full freedom to the slaves until they had completed what was termed “Apprenticeship,” an additional four years of mandatory labor on the sugar estates. The poem depicts the attitudes of those who were made free earlier to those who were still tied by Apprenticeship to the estates. How does the poem explore and possibly resolve this conflict between those were once all slaves?
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