A Political Theorist Reading of Robert Hayden's "Frederick Dougla**"
Robert Hayden, as a student of history as well as literature, was attuned to the academic trends of his era. Colonialism and Post-Colonialism were dominant trains of academic thought on Liberal Arts campuses, and Hayden's experience at the University of Michigan served as a proving ground for Hayden's exposure to many of the theoretical frameworks philosophers used to explain the phenomena of racism and power dialectics. Whether Hayden rejected or accepted any of these frameworks can be speculated upon, but what is important to note is the body of academia that grew out of the era in which Hayden wrote. In particular, the Harvard trained Sociologist Orlando Patterson devoted his body of work to the theories and ruminations Hayden explores in "Frederick Dougla**". Patterson at length, throughout the 1960's and into the present, has explored the philosophical idea of slavery, namely: how can slavery exist within a "just" society? how does the presence of slavery define, codify, and give limits to freedom? what does it mean to be "free" when slavery exists? These questions are ones that Hayden, Patterson's senior, addresses in "Frederick Dougla**" and in much of his poetry. It is important to note, then, the method in which two different academic fields address the same academic premise. Hayden-as-artist uses poetry to explore the hypothetical causes and effects of slavery on humanity through Dougla**, whereas Patterson uses a more empirical, sociological method to explore the past, present, and future implications of slavery on democratic republics.