By our blood in Afric wafted, Ere our necks received the chain; By the miferies we have tafted, Croffing in your barks the main; By our fufferings, fince ye brought us To the man-degrading mart; All fuftained by patience, taught us Only by a broken heart. Deem our nation brutes no longer, Slaves of gold, whose fordid dealings Prove that you have human feelings, Ere you proudly queftion ours! PITY FOR POOR AFRICANS. Video meliora proboque, I own I am shocked at the purchase of slaves, I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, What give up our deferts, our coffee, and tea! Befides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Danes, If foreigners likewife would give up the trade, Your fcruples and arguments bring to my mind A youngfter at school more fedate than the reft, His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob, He was fhocked, fir, like you, and answered-"Oh no! "You fpeak very fine, and you look very grave, If you will go with us, you shall have a share, If not, you fhall have neither apple nor pear.” They spoke, and Tom pondered- "I fee they will go: Poor man! what a pity to injure him so! Poor man! I would fave him his fruit if I cou'd, But flaying behind will do him no good. "If the matter depended alone upon me, His apples might hang till they dropt from the tree; His fcruples thus filenced, Tom felt more at ease, THE MORNING DREAM. "Twas in the glad season of spring, I dreamed that on ocean afloat, Far hence to the weftward I failed, While the billows high-lifted the boat, And the fresh-blowing breeze never failed. In the fteerage a woman I saw, Such at leaft was the form that she wore, Whose beauty impreffed me with awe, Ne'er taught me by woman before. She fat, and a fhield at her fide Shed light, like a fun on the waves, And smiling divinely, fhe cried— Then raifing her voice to a ftrain The sweetest, that ear ever heard, She fung of the slave's broken chain, Wherever her glory appeared. Some clouds, which had over us hung, Fled, chafed by her melody clear, And methought while the liberty fung, 'Twas liberty only to hear. Thus fwiftly dividing the flood, To a flave-cultured ifland we came, In his hand, as the fign of his sway, But foon as approaching the land, I saw him both ficken and die, And the moment the monfter expired, Heard fhouts, that afcended the sky, From thousands with rapture inspired. |