The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Margaret Chandler/Anthony Benezet

Anthony Benezet
Friend of the Afric! friend of the oppress'd! Thou who wert cradled in a far-off clime, Where bigotry and tyranny unbless'd, With gory hand defaced the page of time; Wert thou forth driven by their stern control, An infant fugitive across the deep, To teach, in after years, thy pitying soul O'er all the Afric's causeless wrongs to weep, Where slavery's bitter tears the flag of freedom steep?

And thou didst nobly plead for them; thy heart, Thrilling to all the holy sympathies, Of natural brotherhood, wept, to see the mart Of commerce, with its human merchandize, So crowded and polluted, and thy voice, With the clear trumpet tones of God's own word, Rang through the guilty crowd, until no choice Was left them but to tremble as they heard, Or bind with treble seal the feelings thou hadst stirr'd.

The ears of princes heard thee; and the wise, Touch'd by the mastery of thy earnestness, Bade their train'd spirits for a while to rise From their profound research, and learn to bless Thy generous efforts, and with kindred zeal, Led on by thee in duty's path to move; And kindled by thy sacred ardour, feel, Like thee, that overflowing gush of love, That lifts man's selfish heart all narrow thoughts above.

The fetters of the slave are still unbroken; But there will come, perchance, ere long, a day, When by their lips who wrong'd him, shall be spoken The fiat of his freedom;—and the ray Of intellectual light shall radiance pour On minds o'er which the gloom of darkness hung In treble folds impervious before, By tyrants’ hands around them rudely flung, To bind the chains that to both limb and spirit clung.

Then shall their children learn to speak thy name, With the full heart of gratitude, and know What thou hast done for them; and while they frame That history for their infants’ ears, may grow Perchance, in their own hearts, the likeness strong Of thy bright virtues; so thou still shalt be, Even in thy sepulchre, their friend;—and long Shall those who love mankind, remember thee, Thou noble friend of those who pined in slavery