This article accompanies the fable
Letters from Africa


Poe's The Raven

Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven channels slavery and this was recognized even at the time, as can be seen in the cartoon below, where a disheveled Confederate is haunted by a "Negro" raven sitting stop the head of Horace Greeley, famously influential northern newspaper editor and proponent of abolition.

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
                                        Shall be lifted -- nevermore!