Poetry has the power to teach people new things and change their perspective on life. When authors realize the power of their poetry it is a revolutionary thing because they are able to teach people through their poetry. In many poems the reader is able to get a sense of the culture in which the author grew up. This teaches people a lot about the past and what people had to deal with in the past. When America was a young nation, slavery was common. People were brought from Africa and forced to work on southern plantations. There was an entire population of people in the United States who were mistreated and honestly didn't belong anywhere. They were not considered citizens of the United States and this created a big problem after the Civil War. When the slaves were freed, many of them had no idea where they were supposed to go or what they were supposed to do. Some thought being free was worse because they had no skills or a way to earn money to get food. This created a huge problem and as a result many freed slaves starved to death. There was also a very hostile attitude towards the freed slaves because many people were angry at the outcome of the war. Many people were also angry because they didn't know what to do with the massive slave population now traveling throughout the United States. That historical era contained many opinions and emotions that were interpreted during the Harlem Renaissance, when many African Americans began writing about this terrible historical period. Today these poems are what people use to understand what happened in the past and how they felt about it. Clifton and McElroy both focus on story in their poems, Hughes focuses more on feelings, and all sh...... middle of paper ...... this is what makes Hughes' poems different; because it focuses more on the emotions of the slaves and the other authors focus more on the historical side of this time period. This is how Hughes's poetry contrasts with that of McElroy and Clifton. All of these poets, especially Hughes, show how slaves only wanted to be seen as something other than slaves; they wanted to be equal to the white people who tried to control them. . In all of their heritage poems the authors describe how the slaves simply wanted something that was so simple. They just wanted to be seen as equal to everyone around them. They knew that the way they were being treated wasn't right and they also knew that it was only a matter of time before they would be free and then they knew that white people would be ashamed of what they had done to a group of people. just because of the color of their skin.