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Today I am answering the question, ‘In what ways do Victorian texts reflect the
historical/social contexts of their production
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I propose
that The Black Cat mirrors the historical and social context that it was produced in
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Antebellum is defined as ‘occurring or existing before a particular war,
especially the US Civil War
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North America used to be a part of the British Empire, with the first contact
established in the 16th century
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These thirteen colonies declared independence in 1776 and won the American
Revolutionary War in 1783
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’ 2 America achieved its independence from British
rule in 1783 and established itself as a new, progressive nation
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However,
as you will see not all people were treated as equals in Southern antebellum America –
regardless of what it states in the Declaration of Independence
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Poe lived in the household of John Allan a prosperous

1

Ed
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Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus
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2
Unites States Declaration of Independence (1776)

merchant of Richmond, Virginia
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’ 3 Furthermore, Poe
was attended to by a black servant during his year at the University of Virginia
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Therefore, I assert, that Southern antebellum
America ideology was distilled into Poe’s conscious, which would made it highly likely for it
to be reiterated in his work
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In the text not only are we met with a domesticated pet, but a
black one, which is submitted to a master/slave relationship
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’ Therefore the people of southern antebellum America equated
slaves with animals
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The quote, ‘In his fright at my violence,’ 4 suggests the
Southern antebellum ideology of turning to violence to dominate over what is typically
mute
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’ 5 The lexical
use of playmate can be seen as a reference to Poe’s childhood, where it was likely that he
played with slave children
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Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat, (New York: Harper Perennial Classics, 2015), Kindle Edition, 6
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6
Poe, The Black Cat, 21
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’ 7 The lexical field is closely tied to that which would describe the
punishment for disobedient slaves
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I suggest that The Black Cat was influenced with the historical incident of Nat
Turners revolt but primarily the Southern antebellum version and obsession with it
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On August
21, 1831, he led a rebellion of slaves and free blacks, resulting in the death of at least 50
white people and the killing of over 200 black people by white militias and mobs
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’ 8 Just as this
Southern version of Nat Turner’s revolt the narrator’s aggression first of all appears
motiveless as it turns into criminality
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In addition, I argue, that Poe was using Pluto as a metaphor for slavery in Southern
antebellum America
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Ginsberg notes that a character in The Gold-Bug, ‘provides a bit of blackface humour
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’ The Gold bug was one of Poe’s
most popular stories in his time and it was published less than two months before The Black
Cat
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7
8

Poe, The Black Cat, 11
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Despite the declaration of independence not all people were deemed as equals,
including women, this is symbolised in The Black Cat
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This could relate to
the overall perception of women in Victorian society, however, I assert that it was worse in
Southern antebellum America
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’ 9
Furthermore, the wife in The Black Cat bears the brunt of his addiction to power
over his dependents: ‘from the sudden frequent and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to
which I now blindly abandoned myself, my uncomplaining wife, alas! Was the most usual
and the most patient of suffers
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I propose that the wife’s portrayal in The Black Cat ultimately reflects the way
women were treated throughout Poe’s society, in this time period
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The woman
disintegrates from ‘wife’ to a ‘body’ to an ‘it’
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Moreover, the placement of the wife’s body in the cellar creates another level of dominance
over her
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To conclude it is clear that The Black Cat can be seen as being a product of the
historical context of the antebellum period
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did not change the gothic views of Europe, nor make every man equal
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Slavery was
abolished in 1865 with the 13th amendment
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However, many black Americans in
contemporary America do not feel that they are equal to their white counterparts
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