Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s deeply disturbing 1847 poem about a woman escaping slavery and killing her child was written to shock its intended white female readership to the abolitionist cause. Browning was the direct descendant of slave owners in Jamaica and a fervent anti-slavery campaigner, and her dramatic monologue presents a searing attack on the hypocrisy of ‘liberty’ as enshrined in the United States constitution. Mark and Seamus look at the origins of the poem and its story, and its place among other abolitionist narratives of the time. Sign up to the Close Readings subscription to listen ad free and to all our series in full: Directly in Apple Podcasts In other podcast apps Read more in the LRB Matthew Bevis: Foiled by Pleasure Alethea Hayter: Reader, I married you John Bayley: A Question of Breathing Colin Grant: Leave them weeping Fara Dabhoiwala: My Runaway Slave, Reward Two Guineas Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.