Poetry charts the course of African slavery

At first it seems a contradiction in terms: the toil of generations of African slaves and the quiet reflections of poetry. As a new anthology demonstrates, however, poets on both sides of the Atlantic focused an early, bright, harsh and unwavering light on slavery even as the slave trade flourished and plantation owners prospered from it. A newly published book, Amazing Grace, An Anthology of Poems About Slavery, 1660-1810, brings together a remarkably diverse cast of more than 250 poets.