Auctions of the Mind: Emily Dickinson and Abolition

BENJAMIN FRIEDLANDER Auctions of the Mind: Emily Dickinson and Abolition 'hat were emily Dickinson's opinions on the great moral issue of slavery, which so shook the foundations of her society? Neither letters nor poems offer direct testimony. We know, however, that Dickinson's father, elected as a Whig to the 33rd Congress, participated in the House debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill; we know, too, that she read newspapers and magazines avidly, and that her chosen "Preceptor," Thomas Wentworth Higginson, was a prominent abolitionist .1 She was, in other words, almost certainly well informed on the subject, but chose consciously (for whatever reasons) to keep close counsel with her beliefs.2 One indication that Dickinson did take note of the slavery debate is her oblique use ofthe language of abolition in poems that don't directly address that topic. A case in point is poem no. 709 in the Harvard edition of Dickinson's work: Publication—is the Auction Of the Mind of Man— Poverty—be justifying For so foul a thing Possibly—but We—would rather From our Garret go White—Unto the White Creator— Than invest—Our Snow— Thought belong to Him who gave it— Then—to Him Who bear Arizona Quarterly Volume 54, Number 1, Spring 1998 Copyright © 1998 hy Arizona Board of Regents ISSN 0004-1610 Benjamin Friedender It's Corporeal illustration—Sell The Royal Air— In the Parcel—Be the Merchant Of the Heavenly Grace— But reduce no Human Spirit To Disgrace of Price— Though the Harvard edition gives 1863 as date—the year succeeding Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation—Dickinson's language recalls an earlier era's rhetoric. The powerful image ofNegro families sundered at auction, an image already slipping into history when Dickinson wrote these lines, appears to have served, perversely, as her inspiration. I say perversely because the object of Dickinson's wrath isn't slavery, nor even auction, but publication. She saves her especial vehemence for seekers ofpublicity, for those who would share their "Thought" with a wide public. "Thought," she says, is a gift, and should remain the intimate property of two, "Him who gave" and "Him who bear." Wider circulation she calls "Disgrace of Price." Grudgingly accepting "Poverty" as a possible justification "for so foul a thing," she nonetheless condemns this violation of intimacy as a reduction of "Human Spirit." But before following out this poem's logic more fully, I shall consider a brief series of texts that also make use of auction, in order to highlight Dickinson 's peculiar use of this motif, and in order to show how compact, how heavy a burden the word "Auction" can convey. WHlTTIER, HARPER, WHITMAN The contestation between religious and economic determinations of value Dickinson puts forward in "Publication—is the Auction" is typical of abolitionist verse. Typical too is denunciation ofany compromise between the two—between claims of the spirit and claims of the market . In 1836, John GreenleafWhittier penned one ofhis angriest poems on this theme, "Clerical Oppressors": What! preach, and kidnap men? Give thanks, and rob thy own afflicted poor? Talk of thy glorious liberty, and then Bolt hard the captive's door? Emily Dickinson and Abolition Paid hypocrites, who turn Judgment aside, and rob the Holy Book Of those high words of truth which search and burn In warning and rebuke; Feed fat, ye locusts, feed! And, in your tasselled pulpits, thank the Lord That, from the toiling bondman's utter need, Ye pile your own full board. (38-39) In 1843, in "The Christian Slave," Whittier returned to this theme to denounce a New Orleans auction where the slaves were advertised "as pious or as members of a church": A christian! going, gone! Who bids for God's own image? for his grace Which that poor victim of the market-place Hath in her suffering won? Oh from the fields of cane, From the low rice-swamp, from the trader's cell; From the black slave-ship's foul and loathsome hell, And coffle's weary chain; Hoarse, horrible and strong, Rises to Heaven that agonizing cry, Filling the arches of the sky, How long, O God, how long? (87-89) "Clerical Oppressors" and "The...