The Black Man's Lament | ||
THE BLACK MAN'S LAMENT.
Ye tender hearts, and children dear!
And, should it move your souls to pity,
Oh! try to end the griefs you hear.
In western India's sultry clime,
Which makes, alas! the Black man's woes,
And also makes the White man's crime.
A sweet rich juice, which White men prize;
And that they may this sugar gain,
The Negro toils, and bleeds, and dies.
Of past and present wrongs the story;
And would all British hearts could feel,
To end those wrongs were Britain's glory.
His ships the cruel White man sends;
And there contrives, by armed band,
To tear us from our homes and friends;
From tender wife, and child to tear;
Then in a darksome ship to place,
Pack'd close, like bales of cotton there.
Die from their prison's putrid breath!
Since they escape from White man's pow'r,
From toils and stripes, and lingering death!
Soon as the ship had reach'd the strand,
Unloading its degraded store
Of freemen, forc'd from Negro land?
To choose and claim us for their slaves;
And make us envy those who found
In the dark ship their early graves.
In lines, the drivers in the rear:
Poor Negroes hold a hoe in hand,
But they the wicked cart-whip bear.
Swift to the cane-fields driven are;
There first our toil the weeds removes,
And next we holes for plants prepare.
Women and men, or strong or weak,
Worn out or fresh, those gangs among,
That dare the toilsome line to break!
Together we must work or stop;
Therefore, the whip our strength must aid,
And lash us when we pause or drop!
The bright-eye top of many a cane,
Lengthways, we in the trenches place,
And then we trenches dig again.
And e'en, ere fifteen days come round,
We can the slender sprouts behold,
Just shooting greenly from the ground.
Then mould again by hand we throw;
And, at no very distant day,
Here Negroes plough, and there they hoe.
'Tis then begin our saddest pains;
For then we toil both day and night,
Though fever burns within our veins.
Then the tall canes rich juices fill;
And we, to bring their liquor forth,
Convey them to the bruising-mill.
Must with fresh loads of canes supply;
And if we faint, the cart-whip's power,
Gives force which nature's powers deny.
In leaden bed, soon as it flows;
And instant, lest it spoil for use,
It into boiling vessels goes.
Receive and clear the sugar-tide.
Six coolers next receive the store;
Long vessels, shallow, wooden, wide.
Or form in crystals white and clear;
Then we remove the whole again,
And to the curing-house we bear.
The liquor is through hogsheads pour'd;
The scum falls through, the crystals stay;
The casks are clos'd, and soon on board.
And bear the hardly-gotten treasure.
Oh! that good Englishmen could know
How Negroes suffer for their pleasure!
Save when we eat, to work are driven:
Six days, three nights; then, to each class,
Just twenty hours of rest are given.
That eve which White men sacred keep,
Again we at our toil are found,
And six days more we work and weep.
The English peasant works all day;
Turns up, and sows, and ploughs the soil.
Thou wouldst not, sure, have Negroes play?”
Whene'er they like, and stop for breath;
No driver dares, like any Turk,
Flog peasants on almost to death.
Or buy, or sell, or steal away?
Who sheds his blood? treats him like dog,
Or fetters him like beasts of prey?
If child he has, that child is free.
I am depriv'd of married life,
And my poor child were slave like me.
Of pine-tree trunks, unsquar'd, ill-clos'd;
Blanket we have, but not a bed,
Whene'er to short, chill sleep dispos'd.
Is rice, dried fish, and Indian meal.
Hard, scanty fare! Oh, would I could
Make White men Negroes' miseries feel!”
Raise plants for food, and poultry rear?
You might, if willing, till your ground,
And then some wants would disappear.”
When all our master's work is o'er,
How could we bear our own to do?
Poor, weary slaves, hot, scourg'd, and sore!
Calls White man to the house of pray'r,
And makes poor blacks more sadly feel
'Tis thought slaves have no business there:
And raise their food on Sabbath-day;
But Envy's pangs poor Negroes fill,
That we must work while others pray.
White men may bind, whip, torture slave.
But oh! if we but strike one White,
Who can poor Negro help or save?
Masters who gentle deign to be;
And there, perhaps, the Negro smiles,
But smiling Negroes few can see.
And, lately, I am grown more calm;
For Christian men come o'er the main,
To pour in Negro souls a balm.
Who died to save both bond and free;
And who, with eyes of equal love,
Beholds White man, and humble me.
I bear my wrongs from day to day,
I shall, at death, to realms depart,
Where God wipes every tear away!
For, when with sense of injury prest,
I burn with rage! and then I think
I ne'er can gain that place of rest.”
And ne'er resum'd his tale of ruth.
Alas! it rends my heart to know
He only told a tale of truth.
“A field of canes, when standing in the month of November, when it is in arrow or full blossom, (says Beckford, in his descriptive account of the Island of Jamaica,) is one of the most beautiful productions that the pen or pencil can possibly describe. It, in common, rises from three to eight feet, or more, in height; a difference of growth that very strongly marks the difference of soil, or the varieties of culture. It is, when ripe, of a bright and golden yellow; and, where obvious to the sun, is in many parts very beautifully streaked with red. The top is of a darkish green; but the more dry it becomes, (from either an excess of ripeness, or a continuance of drought,) of a russet yellow, with long and narrow leaves depending; from the centre of which, shoots up an arrow, like a silver wand, from two to six feet in height; and, from the summit of which, grows out a plume of white feathers, which are delicately fringed with a lilac dye, and indeed is, in its appearance, not much unlike the tuft that adorns this particular and elegant tree.”
The Black Man's Lament | ||