Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1852-02-07
Mlisfelldncous.
The Slaves Of Martinique,


Scarcely has the toll Of tOskaclds done her
graceful beauty wrong.
He, the strong one and the manly with the
vassal's garb and hue,
Holding still his spirits birthrght to his higher
nature true;
Hiding deep the strengthening purpose of
freeman in his heart
AS the grccgrco holds his Fetch, from the white
mans gaze apart
Ever foremost Of his comrades, when the dri.
vcrs morning horn,
Calls away to sitting millhouse, to the fields of
cane and corn,
Fall the keen and burning lashes never on his
back or limb.
Scarce with look or word of censure, turns the
driver unto him.
Yet his brow is always thoughtful, and his eye
is hard and stern
Slavery's last and humblcst lesson, he has never
deigped to learn.
And at evening when his comrades dance before
their masters door
Folding arms, and knitting forehead stands he
silent evermore.
God be praised for every instinct, which rebels
against n lot,
When the brute survives tho human, and mans
upright form is not
As the scrpontlikc bejuco, winds his spiral fold
on fold
Round the tall and stately ceiba. till it withers
in its hold;
Slow decays the forest monarch closer girds
the fell embrace
Till the tree is seen no longer, and the vine is
in his place
So base and bcstial nature round the vassal's
manhood twincs
And tho spirit wastes beneath it like the cciba
chokcd with vines.
God is love, saith the evangel, and one world
of voc and sin
IL made light and happy only when love is |
shining in
Ye whose lives are free as sunshine finding
whereso'er yc roam
Smiles of welcome, looks Of Kindness making
all the world like home,
In the veins Of whose Affections kindred blood
is but a part
OF one kindly current throbbing from the uni
versal heart
Can ye know the deeper meaning of love in
slavery nursed,
Last flower of lost Eden, blooming in that
soil accursed:
Love Of Homo, and Love Of Woman--dear to
all, but doubly dear
To the heart whose pulses elsewhere, measure
only, hate and fear
AL around tho desert circles, underneath a
brazen sky,
Only one green spot remaining where he dew
Is never dry,
From the horror Of that desert from its atmos-
phere of hell
Turns the fainting spirit thithcr, as the driver
seeks his bell,
Tis the fervid tropic noontimc faint and low
the sea waves beat
Hazy rise the inland mountains through the
glimmer of the heat.
Where, through mingled leaves and blossoms,
arid sunbeams flash and glisten.
Speaks her lover to the slave girl, and she lifts
her head to listen:
1--WE shall live as Slaves no longer Freedoms
hour is close at hand,
Rocks the bark upon the waters, rests the boat
upon the strand,
81 have seen the Haytien Captain; I have
seen his swarthy crew
Haters of the palled faces, to their race and
color true.
"1hey have sworn to wait our coming till the |
night has passed its noon
nd tho md darL apin1 xyotors roI .bo.o
the sunken moon"
oh the blessed hope of freedom how with joy
and glad surprise
For an instant throbs her bosom for IN instant
beam her eyes,
But she looks across the valley where her moth
er's hut is seen
Through the snowy bloom Of coffee, and the
lemon leaves so green,
And she answers sad and earnest, alt were
wrong for thee to stay,
God hath heard thy prayer for freedom, and his
finger points the way,
I" Well / know with what endurance, for the |
sake of mo and mine
Thou hast boruo too long, burden never meant |
for souls like thine;
Go; and at the hour OF midnight, whom our last |
farewell is o'cr,
Kneeling on our place of parting. I will bless
thee from the shore,
But for mo. my mother. lying on her sick bed all
the day
Should leave her sick and helpless, even free
dom shared with thee
Would be sadder far than bondage. lonely toll,
and stripes to me
For my heart would die within me, and my !
brain would soon be wild
j should hear my mother calling through the !
twilight for her child"
Blazing upward from the ocean, shines the sun
Of morning time