Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/221

  Forced from home and all its pleasures, Afric's coast I left forlorn, To increase a stranger's treasures, O'er the raging billows borne; Men from England bought and sold me, Paid my price in paltry gold; But, though theirs they have enroll'd me, Minds are never to be sold.

Still in thought as free as ever, What are England's rights, I ask, Me from my delights to sever Me to torture, me to task? Fleecy locks and black complexion Cannot forfeit Nature's claim; Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in black and white the same.

Why did all creating Nature Make the plant, for which we toil? Sighs must fan it, tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think, ye masters, iron-hearted, Lolling at your jovial boards, Think, how many backs have smarted For the sweets your cane affords.

Is there, as you sometimes tell us, Is there One, who rules on high? Has He bid you buy and sell us, Speaking from his throne, the sky? Ask Him, if your knotted scourges, Fetters, blood-extorting screws, Are the means, which duty urgea Agents of His will to use I

Hark! He answers. Wild tornadoes Strewing yonder sea with wrecks, Wasting towns, plantations, meadows, Are the voice with which He speaks. He, foreseeing what vexations Afric's sons should undergo, Fix'd their tyrant's habitations Where his whirlwinds answer — No I

By our blood in Afric wasted, Ere our necks receiv'd the chain; By the miseries, which we tasted Crossing, in your barks, the main; By our sufferings, since you brought us To the man-degrading mart, All sustain'd by patience, taught us Only by a broken heart.