Little Black Boy - William Blake

James Chang
Section 1A - Ian

From lecture notes:

-misread as racist because of language of first three stanzas; specifically, the poem has been misinterpreted as endorsing slavery and supporting the idea that inside the black slaves are white people trying to get out
-in Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake consistently treats traditional authority figures, including parents, as problematic
-through the poem itself and its accompanying image on the plate, Blake undermines the lesson imparted by the mother

My own understanding (influenced by lecture):

- poem is similar to the Songs of Innocence version of “The Chimney Sweeper” (where the angel tricks Tom Dacre into enduring the hardship of his life as chimney sweeper through the promise of future salvation) in that the mother reassures the black boy that the “cloud” of his dark skin will “vanish” and his white soul will emerge when he achieves salvation through God
-furthermore, (like Tom Dacre who emerges from his dream rejuvenated, full of hope, and ready to work) the slave boy listens to the mother and vows to continue shading the white boy (interpreted as continuing to work) in hopes of one day becoming white too
-the color black in the poem represents experience and the reality of toiling in the fields under the sun; listening to the mother, the black boy focuses on becoming white and thus becomes oblivious to the reality of his life
-“I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear” (line 25); in this line, the black boy does all the work, “shading” and supporting the white, English boy; this line reflects how the prosperity of the white economy relied on slave labor and how the upper class, landed gentry lived luxuriously and free from hard work
-taking the context of Songs of Innocence and of Experience into consideration, “Little Black Boy” actually exposes the exploitation of slaves and therefore calls for people to challenge traditional authority of all forms