|
THE AMERICAN
SLAVE-SHIP
---------------
"WHAT interested us most
deeply, was his description of the extent and horrors of
slavery and the slave-trade on the coast of Brazil.
Not less than thirty or forty thousand slaves are
brought there annually, and the mass of them in American
vessels, under the American flag on the African coast,
disguised elsewhere.
"And what is worse, these vessels are owned and
controlled by Americans! citizens of New
England! Aye, and what is worse than all,
by profession, Christians of New England! Yes,
I write with shame and sorrow, one vessel, which we saw
and named, was owned an controlled by the Rev. Mr.
____, a Baptist minister in the village of ____,
in Massachusetts." - Published in the
Cleveland True Democrat, from the testimony of
Thomas C. M'Donald, Esq., bearer of despatches from
the American Legation at Rio-de-Janeiro to the
Government at Washington.
No breeze the dark
pine-wood can wave,
In your proud country of the free,
But fans the bosom of a slave -
Slave of the "sons of liberty!"
Though brightly foams the
feathery spray,
A gloom is on the sunny sea;
For the pirate slave-ship wings her way,
Manned by the "sons of liberty!"
The stars and stripes are
at her mast,
But crimson must their shadow be;
For the shark hath tracked her as she
passed,
And hailed the "sons of liberty."
Look ye to Washington's
lone grave,
And blush that
human eye may see
The turf polluted by a slave,
That shrouds
that "son of liberty."
Land of the West, one task
is yours,
Bid the proud waters of your sea
In triumph flow round happy shores,
Trod but by
"sons of liberty!"
|
Leeds Anti-slavery
Series. No. 58.
Sold by W. and F. G. CASH, 5,
Bishopsgate Street, London; and by JANE JOWETT, Friends'
Meeting Yard, Leeds, at 1s. 2. per 100.
|
