The Anti-Slavery Harp | Page 6

to hear;
Have ye power to unbind?
Are ye wanting in will?
Must the groans of your bondman still torture
the ear?
The daughter of Jefferson sold for a slave!
The child of a freeman for
dollars and francs!
The roar of applause, when your orators rave,
Is
lost in the sound of her chain, as it clanks.
Peace, then, ye blasphemers of Liberty's name!
Though red was the
blood by your forefathers spilt,
Still redder your cheeks should be
mantled with shame,
Till the spirit of freedom shall cancel the guilt.
But the brand of the slave is the tint of his skin,
Though his heart may
beat loyal and true underneath;
While the soul of the tyrant is rotten
within,
And his white the mere cloak to the blackness of death.
Are ye deaf to the plaints that each moment arise?
Is it thus ye forget
the mild precepts of Penn,--
Unheeding the clamor that "maddens the
skies,"
As ye trample the rights of your dark fellow-men?
When the incense that glows before Liberty's shrine,
Is unmixed with

the blood of the galled and oppressed,
O, then, and then only, the
boast may be thine,
That the stripes and stars wave o'er a land of the
blest.
THE SLAVE-AUCTION--A FACT.
Why stands she near the auction stand,
That girl so young and fair;

What brings her to this dismal place,
Why stands she weeping there?
Why does she raise that bitter cry?
Why hangs her head with shame,

As now the auctioneer's rough voice,
So rudely calls her name?
But see! she grasps a manly hand,
And in a voice so low,
As
scarcely to be heard, she says,
'My brother, must I go?'
A moment's pause: then midst a wail
Of agonizing woe,
His answer
falls upon the ear,
'Yes, sister, you must go!'
'No longer can my arm defend,
No longer can I save
My sister from
the horrid fate
That waits her as a SLAVE!'
Ah! now I know why she is there,
She came there to be sold!
That
lovely form, that noble mind,
Must be exchanged for gold!
O God! my every heart-string cries,
Dost thou these scenes behold

In this our boasted Christian land,
And must the truth be told?
Blush, Christian, blush! for e'en the dark
Untutored heathen see
Thy
inconsistency, and lo!
They scorn thy God, and thee!
GET OFF THE TRACK.
Air--Dan Tucker.
Ho! the car Emancipation
Rides majestic thro' our nation,
Bearing
on its train the story,
Liberty! a nation's glory.
Roll it along, thro'

the nation,
Freedom's car, Emancipation!
First of all the train, and greater,
Speeds the dauntless Liberator,

Onward cheered amid hosannas,
And the waving of free banners.

Roll it along! spread your banners,
While the people shout hosannas.
Men of various predilections,
Frightened, run in all directions;

Merchants, editors, physicians,
Lawyers, priests, and politicians.

Get out of the way! every station!
Clear the track of 'mancipation!
Let the ministers and churches
Leave behind sectarian lurches;

Jump on board the car of Freedom,
Ere it be too late to need them.

Sound the alarm! Pulpits thunder!
Ere too late you see your blunder!
Politicians gazed, astounded,
When, at first, our bell resounded;

Freight trains are coming, tell these foxes,
With our votes_ and
_ballot boxes.
Jump for your lives! politicians,
From your
dangerous, false positions.
All true friends of Emancipation,
Haste to Freedom's railroad station;

Quick into the cars get seated,
All is ready and completed.
Put on
the steam! all are crying,
And the liberty flags are flying.
Now again the bell is tolling,
Soon you'll see the car-wheels rolling;

Hinder not their destination,
Chartered for Emancipation.
Wood
up the fire! keep it flashing,
While the train goes onward dashing.
Hear the mighty car-wheels humming!
Now look out! the Engine's
coming!
Church and statesmen! hear the thunder!
Clear the track or
you'll fall under.
Get off the track! all are singing,
While the Liberty
bell is ringing.
On, triumphant see them bearing,
Through sectarian rubbish tearing;

The bell and whistle and the steaming,
Startle thousands from their
dreaming.

Look out for the cars while the bell rings!
Ere the sound

your funeral knell rings.
See the people run to meet us;
At the depots thousands greet us;
All
take seats with exultation,
In the Car Emancipation.
Huzza! Huzza!!
Emancipation
Soon will bless our happy nation,
Huzza! Huzza!
Huzza!!!
BE FREE, O MAN, BE FREE.
The storm-winds wildly blowing,
The bursting billows mock,
As
with their foam-crests glowing,
They dash the sea-girt rock;
Amid
the wild commotion,
The revel of the sea,
A voice is on the ocean,

Be free, O man, be free.
Behold the sea-brine leaping
High in the murky air;
List to the
tempest sweeping
In chainless fury there.
What moves the mighty
torrent,
And bids it flow abroad?
Or turns the rapid current?
What,
but the voice of God?
Then, answer, is the spirit
Less noble or less free?
From whom does
it inherit
The doom of slavery?
When man can bind the waters,

That they no longer roll,
Then let him forge the fetters
To clog the
human soul.
Till then a voice is stealing
From earth and sea and sky,
And to the
soul revealing
Its immortality.
The swift wind chants the numbers

Careering o'er the sea,
And earth, aroused from slumbers,

Re-echoes, "Man, be free."
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE TO THE CHRISTIAN.
The fetters galled my weary soul--
A soul that seemed but thrown
away;
I spurned the tyrant's base control,
Resolved at last the