Page:The black man - his antecedents, his genius, and his achievements (IA blackmanantecede00browrich).pdf/97

 developed. A number of young whites, who were well acquainted with Placido and his genius, resolved to purchase him and present him his freedom, which they did in the year 1842. But a new field had opened itself to the freed black, and he began to tread in its paths. Freedom for himself was only the beginning; he sighed to make others free. The imaginative brain of the poet produced verses which the slaves sung in their own rude way, and which kindled in their hearts a more intense desire for liberty. Placido planned an insurrection of the slaves, in which he was to be their leader and deliverer; but the scheme failed. After a hasty trial, he was convicted and sentenced to death. The fatal day came; he walked to the place of execution with as much calmness as if it had been to an ordinary resort of pleasure. His manly and heroic bearing excited the sympathy and admiration of all who saw him. As he arrived at the fatal spot he began reciting the following hymn, which he had written in his cell the previous night:—

TO GOD—A PRAYER.

"Almighty God! whose goodness knows no bound, To thee I flee in my severe distress;  O let thy potent arm my wrongs redress, And rend the odious veil by slander wound About my brow. The base world's arm confound,  Who on my front would now the seal of shame impress.

God of my sires, to whom all kings must yield, Be thou alone my shield; protect me now: All power is His, to whom the sea doth owe His countless stores; who clothed with light heaven's field, And made the sun, and air, and polar seas congealed; All plants with life endowed, and made the rivers flow.