Slavery Poem by James Ephraim McGirt

Oh, slavery! why was thou so cruel,
So cursed and so black;
To leave your cruel footprints
Upon our father's back.

Oh, say, why did you beat him,
Thou should'st have said depart?
Oh, why was thou so cruel
As to crush his manly heart?

And even now his hair is gray
In blossoms for the grave,
And yet I see within him
Traits learned while he's a slave.

Why'd you not enslave the women,
And let their virtue live?
Oh, slavery wast so cruel,
How can women forgive.

The women pure as dewdrops,
As infants at their birth;
But slavery's ravishing passion
Crushed virtue to the earth.

The mother told the story;
Her sons began to pine.
She pressed them to her bosom;
God said, 'Vengence is mine.'

I did not tell the story
To 'rage your little hearts;
I thought its cruelties
To you I would impart.

And if you would seek vengence,
The debt, life could not pay;
Our God will judge them rightly
On resurrection day.