The Start of the End of Me
On Tilbury docks we stand
Separated from my kin
Is the reason we're standing here
The colour of my skin
Standing in the column of no future
I hear the white-man say
We are heading to Virginia
To be plantation slaves
Another journey awaits me
Without my family
The thought of never seeing them again
Internally horrifies me
We find ourselves at sea
With a shout land ahoy
The state of Virginia reached
Where men are turned into toys
We are standing in a line
In a market like cattle and sheep
To my left and to my right
Grown men, cower and weep
White men are shouting and bidding
With no thought to who we are
Do they know we look just like them
The difference is in our colour
Bidding and bartering over
Shaking hands as their deals are done
We head to the plantation
This era for me has begun
Years of toil and work
We hear stories from where we came
Slavery has been outlawed
Will America become the same
As America enters civil war
The North against the South
We hear of Abraham Lincoln
For these words are from his mouth
" I never, in my life,
felt more certain that i was doing right,
than i do in signing this paper "
The civil war ends
With many killed and maimed
White and black from all walks of life
We are human, and we all have names
For on December the 6th
1865
Slavery was abolished
How many of me had died
I grew old and free
So far away from my home
My family i never found
For my spirit, will forever roam
http://www.thehighlanderspoems.com/slavery.php
Copyright © James Fraser | Year Posted 2009
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