Sterling A. Brown’s “Legend” and Empowerment of the Young Black Man

Sterling A. Brown’s “Legend” is the final selection we read from his work in the Oxford Book of American Poetry. Published in 1980, this is a poem written after his career as a professor, and near the end of his life.

In it, the reader meets three characters: the old black man, the old white man, and the young black man. The poem has a fable-like quality in its depiction of a master/slave relationship. It opens with the old black man “on the block” where the old white man purchases him, and where their master/slave relationship begins. We are told “the old black man drove his plough afield/from sun-come-up until sun-go-down” and in the next line given information about the poor living conditions: “His hut was leaky, and the food was scarce” and yet, “‘I’m grateful for these favors,’ said the old black man.”

These images are not entirely uncommon to readers familiar with slavery in the United States. But after the initial two stanzas, Sterling subtly begins to upend our characterization of the old black man. The first example of this is when, after the old white man rapes his wife — she coming back “with a half-white baby” — the old black man responds by saying, “I’m glad to be of service.” The old black man’s response here is perversion of integrity, and Sterling continues to drive deeper into this concept as the poem progresses.

In the next stanza, the old black man goes to the old white man to betray his fellow “mates” after seeing them “take flight” in attempts to free themselves. Then, the old black man loses his “half-white daughter”, and his wife dies. But he says, “I’ve still got my master,” and thus ends the first half of the poem.

Now comes Sterling’s surprise turn, with the introduction of the old black man’s son, who we are told “grow[s] sturdy.” The son is of a different mind than his father, and “say[s] things past all believing” that the old black man tells him will eventually “ruin” him. Here is a tension between the father and son. The old black man is complacent, at times aggressively working to keep the system as it is, and he son denounces it.

In the next two stanzas we see this direct juxtaposition of the old versus young black man. When the old black man is “hung by his thumbs” and beaten, he responds by saying “I must have deserved it.” But immediately following his line we read: “The young black man got to asking questions/Why corn and cotton were his own for working/But not his at all in the shocks and the bales.” The tension now deepens between the father and son, when the old black man responds by saying,”You’re a fool blasphemer” upon his son’s questioning their circumstances.

Perhaps this is where readers begin to pause at the opposition between father and son, the former adhering so strongly to his plight when the latter challenges it. The climax of tension arrives when the old black man goes to his master to tell him of his own son’s betrayal. And then, a shocking line from the young black man’s father: “‘Let me whip him into reason,’ says the old black man.” The old black man offers to discipline his son in honor of the slave master’s oppression of them both. Here, Sterling brings readers to the idea that the old black man and the old white man must both engage in this relationship to keep their master/slave bond in tact. He literally shows this when the “young black man/faced his old black father./The young black man faced the old white man./He straightened his shoulders, and threw back his head,/’I wish you both to hell,’/Said the young black man.” Sterling uses words of empowerment here, with the young black man physically facing the two old men and straightening his shoulders before wishing them both to hell. And then, in the most defiant act of the entire poem, “The young black man broke the whipstock to pieces,/The young black man cut the last into bits.” Sterling is calling for a new generation of young black men to find the empowerment within themselves. It is as though he tells readers: enough of the subordination! We have voices, and our voices empower us.

The final action of the poem cements the old versus the new. The young black man “chained the old men together with the traces,/’You’re fine day is over,”/Said the young black man.” Sterling does so much with these final images. He chains the past into place and even suggests the complacency of the old black man (that might once have been necessary) has become more of a Stockholm syndrome from which he is unwilling to break free. The power in this poem is Sterling’s suggestion that the system of slavery only works when both parties are willing to comply in its hierarchy. But now there is a “young black man” who has found his voice and is not only willing to face the past, but also to chain it into place and walk away from it.  Sterling gives the last resounding line to the young black man, delivered to the chained characters of the past: “Your fine day is over.” And let’s not forget that it is the young black man who remains free at the end of the poem.

Here is a poem that uses language to enact change, and serves as a call to action for all the “young black men” to condemn and walk freely away from the the past. It suggests that there are only two options in response to slavery– one being in the service of the old white master, and the other a call to action to denounce it.