Is "The Slave's Dream" an anti-slavery poem? Give reasons.

"The Slave's Dream" is indeed a staunchly anti-slavery poem. Longfellow demonstrates his clear opposition to slavery by drawing a stark contrast between the slave's present condition and how he imagines himself to be when he's dreaming. As a slave, the subject of the poem is at the very bottom rung of society. Forced to toil all day long in the rice fields for his master, he leads a brutal life: beaten, abused, and humiliated by the wicked slave-drivers, who still insist on whipping him even as he lies dying in the burning sun.

In his dreams, it's a different matter entirely. There, the slave is a king in his ancient ancestral homeland of Africa. Surrounded by a loving wife and adorable children, he is a very important person indeed, not the manacled slave worked to death in the rice fields of the American South.

Everywhere the slave looks in his dream there is extraordinary natural beauty, whether it's the plains where the tamarinds grow or a large flock of pretty pink flamingoes. In his life as a slave, the sun beats down on his mercilessly as he sweats long hours out in the rice fields. But in the dream that carries him back to his ancestral homeland, it shines brightly, illuminating the joys of nature.

Is "The Slave's Dream" an anti-slavery poem?

There's no doubt whatsoever that "The Slave's Dream" is an anti-slavery poem. Longfellow was himself a staunch opponent of slavery, and his hatred of the so-called peculiar institution comes through quite strongly in the poem.

For the most part, this is achieved by comparing the slave's current situation—tired, sweating, and on the brink of death after laboring all day in a rice field—with the contents of his dream of returning to Africa. There, in his ancestral homeland, his spiritual birthplace, the slave is no longer a slave, but a free man, completely in his element. Surrounded by all the joys and beauties of nature and accompanied by his beautiful wife and children, the slave makes his majestic way down the Niger River.

Indeed, the slave is described as a king, which couldn't provide a sharper contrast with his present condition, collapsed with exhaustion right in the middle of a rice field. In Africa, he and many of his ancestors were kings. But in the United States, they have been reduced to the degraded status of slaves. It is no wonder that the slave's dream harks back to the land of his ancestors, which provides him with a glimpse of a much better world.