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The Anti-slavery Harp: A Collection of Songs for Anti-slavery Meetings cover

The Anti-slavery Harp: A Collection of Songs for Anti-slavery Meetings

Chapter 12: THE SLAVE’S LAMENTATION.
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About This Book

A compilation of abolitionist songs and lyric pamphlets intended for anti-slavery gatherings, offering moral appeals, narratives of suffering, and calls to collective action. Poems dramatize the anguish of enslaved mothers, the fate of separated families, and the experiences of fugitives guided by the North Star, while urging political and religious solidarity against slavery. Several pieces adapt their words to familiar popular airs to facilitate communal singing, and the collection blends emotional testimony, exhortation, and patriotic imagery to mobilize audiences for emancipation.

THE SLAVE’S LAMENTATION.

Air—Long, long ago.
Where are the friends that to me were so dear,
Long, long ago—long ago!
Where are the hopes that my heart used to cheer,
Long, long ago—long ago!
I am degraded, for man was my foe,
Friends that I loved in the grave are laid low,
All hope of freedom hath fled from me now,
Long, long ago—long, long ago!
Sadly my wife bowed her beautiful head—
Long, long ago—long ago!
O, how I wept when I found she was dead!
Long, long ago—long ago!
She was my angel, my love and pride—
Vainly to save her from torture I tried,
Poor broken heart! She rejoiced as she died,
Long, long ago—long, long ago!
Let me look back on the days of my youth—
Long, long ago—long ago!
Master withheld from me knowledge and truth—
Long, long ago—long ago!
Crushed all the hopes of my earliest day,
Sent me from father and mother away—
Forbade me to read, nor allowed me to pray—
Long, long ago—long, long ago!