America in the 1850s and 1860s was a nation in crisis and, eventually, a nation at war with itself. In writing an epic about America, Whitman desired to heal the nation with his words. Many of his poems celebrate the potential of America due to the great beauty and wonder inherent in its citizens. However, the issue of slavery, in particular, was the great wound that seemed too infected to heal.

This historical context forms the backdrop to the despair that permeates the poem and that manifests especially in a catalog of oppressive relationships. Men abuse and exploit women; a husband “misuse[s]” his wife, and a “treacherous seducer” preys on young women, putting his own pleasure above their reputations and livelihoods. Likewise, the rich abuse and exploit “laborers” and “the poor,” and white Americans abuse and exploit Black Americans. Far from being a place where everyone has the chance to succeed, America emerges as a place of entrenched haves and have-nots. The image of the mother abandoned to poverty by her children underscores Whitman’s indictment, paralleling the state of the nation itself—a land of promise that has nurtured the very people who have turned their backs on it.