Maria W. Stewart analysis
It is through the growth of “moral worth and intellectual improvement” that Maria Stewart believes the African American race will prosper and be accepted by the white community. Continuing on the topic, Stewart qualifies that no person, white or black, is content with their lives if they are forced to perform menial jobs when they clearly obtain the capability to hold jobs that far surpass the skill level of the “servile labor” they find themselves executing. She even goes so far as to say that if her lot in life was to make a living performing such a task and knowing there was “no possibility of rising above the condition of” the job, she would rather die. In the following sentence she personifies chains, such as those in slavery (and the newest, more modern form of slavery – being stuck in menial jobs), as those of “ignorance and poverty,” to once again display the “horrible idea” that would be to support such slavery. For it is impossible to “enrich” one’s life when spending it “washing windows, shaking carpets, brushing boots, or tending upon gentlemen’s tables” in that once you return home from such a job at the end of the day, the motivation to engage in more substantial, intellectual activities dies. To conclude, Stewart makes the point of attempting to connect with her new, white audience by stating that their American blood flows through her. She is careful to say “your blood” as opposed to our blood because she is aware that due to her previous colloquial language used when reaching out to her black audience, her more intelligent crowd is now skeptical to whether or not she shall be accepted into the likes of their group or calculated as another “lazy and idle” member of what they view to be the African American