Poem: The Slave’s Lamentation
Click to download a printable copy (PDF 1.3 MB)
by Faribank Bush of Norwich, Vermont
Ye sons o freedom now give ear, and o our sufferings you shall hear,
While bound in slavery's chains;
We have no friends to soothe our grief—none to grant the least relief,
Or feel our cutting pains.
Our friends are sold from place to place, our children torn from our embrace,
And sold in foreign lands;
Poor souls are gone, we know not where—they're far beyond our mother's care,
And placed in cruel hands
No tongue can tell, or mortal know, what gloomy hours we undergo,
When all our joys are fled;
Our cup is full of grief and woe, despair doth follow when we know
Our comorts are all dead.
We've laid our cause before the great who rule the vast affairs of state,
When met at Washington;
Their mouths were sealed, their reason fled, and all the people boldy said,
They're gng'd by Atherton.
Now let this servile creature boast of deeds performed while with this host—
Such deeds of endless shame;
Let inamy and foul disgrace persue him through his earthy race,
And rest upon his name.
Is this the land our fathers sought, and with their blood so dearly bought
A land on freedom's shore?
Did they dspute proud tyrants rights 'till they were forc's to yeild or ffight
While fields were drenched in gore?
Is this the land where Warren fell?—our history will ever tell
The cause and reason why—
'T'was liberty inspired his beast, his noble soul then chose that part,
To win the prize, or die.
Is this the land of Washington, of Adams, and of Jefferson,
Who laid the corner stone?
Of equal rights, and rightul laws, of freedom and her noble cause,
So dear to everyone?
Teaching Tools
Information
This poem was written by Faribank Bush of Norwich, Vermont. It was published as a broadside and circulated throughout the state. Publications were just one method that Vermont’s anti-slavery societies used to educate the public and achieve their goals of abolishing slaver and improving the “mental, moral, and political condition of the colored population.”
Questions
- What was the purpose of this poem?
- What is the author asking in the last verse?
- What do you think the author hoped readers of this poem would do?
