James Baldwin’s essay (1963/1993) was written in anticipation of the Emancipation Proclamation’s centennial. It locates itself in a tradition of living letters one generation writes to and for another; and, in particular, the tradition of one generation of slave descendants speaking to a younger one on this important anniversary—most recently exemplified in 2013 when Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote to his 15-year-old son fifty years after Baldwin wrote to his 15-year-old nephew. The existence of this tradition underscores the fact that the Emancipation was and is only the beginning of freedom for African slaves in America; and, that American freedom truly occurs over the course of several, if not many, generations. This tradition brings to mind a poem that has often moved me, a poem I first encountered when I was a teenager: “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden (1966). It is a poem that helps complicate what freedom is and how it is achieved, and its last incarnation—the first version was published in 1947—was completed during the period of the centennial, and serves as a contemporary to Baldwin’s essay:

中文翻译：

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自由，这个美丽而可怕的东西

詹姆斯·鲍德温 (James Baldwin) 的文章 (1963/1993) 是在《解放宣言》一百周年之际写成的。它定位于一代人写信给另一代人的活生生的书信传统；尤其是在这个重要的周年纪念日，一代奴隶后裔与年轻一代交谈的传统——最近一次体现在 2013 年，当时 Ta-Nehisi Coates 在鲍德温写信给他 15 岁的儿子五十年后写信给他 15 岁的儿子。 ——外甥。这一传统的存在强调了这样一个事实，即解放曾经是并且只是美国非洲奴隶自由的开始；并且，美国的自由真正发生在几代甚至几代人的过程中。这个传统让我想起一首经常让我感动的诗，这是我十几岁时第一次遇到的诗：罗伯特·海登的《弗雷德里克·道格拉斯》（1966 年）。这是一首有助于使自由是什么及其实现方式复杂化的诗，它的最后一个化身——第一个版本于 1947 年出版——是在百年纪念期间完成的，与鲍德温的文章同时代：