History Through Whitman

Today in class I made a historical mistake. I thought that in the 1900 centuary the oriental mind had not yet influenced the american mentality. I was confused because I was taught in hisghschool that the modern age started in the 20th century but I omitted that there had to be other progess before to create the change. It was in that time, specially in the US where a new mentality rose, and also it was a modern nation were, as we read in class, there was a mixture of many nationalities.

 What I do have clear in my head is that in that time there was still slavery and it is clearly depicted in poem 13 when Whitman writes:
"The negro holds firmly the reins of his four horses—the block swags underneath on its tied-over chain"(217). The tied over chain makes it obvious for us to understand the historical period of slavery in which the poem was written. It also creat mamicies because when he wrties "the block swags underneath on its tied over chain-" the dash creates the feeling of the chain and how the words are all imprisoned in them.
His poems give us an insight of the time he was going through, the historical time was an inspiration to Whitman´s writing.