THE REVOLUTIONARY AND TRAUMATIC HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN AMIRI BARAKA’S THE SLAVE

Abstract

This research discusses Amiri Baraka's one-act play The Slave (1964) through which he reflects his revolutionary ideas about the traumatic past of slavery and the continuous oppression of black’s community. The Play clearly depicts the tension between the American blacks and the racial whites living in America. By portraying Walker Vessels, the African American protagonist, as both a revolutionary and a slave—apparently a rebel leader—who carries on the heritage of black armed resistance from the antebellum South, The Slave challenges received histories about the era of slavery by creatively dislocating and extending the scope of the militancy of the sixties. This study argues the haunting memory of race relations in the United States and acts of armed resistance by rewriting historical narratives as Baraka's modern revolutionary figure carries the history of slave revolts in The Slave. Moreover, Baraka ensures that even in its imaginary circumstances, The Slave portrays an unfulfilled revolution which encompasses the unfulfilled dreams of change and end of slavery.