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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 21: FLING OUT THE ANTI-SLAVERY FLAG.

By William Wells Brown

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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.

FLING OUT THE ANTI-SLAVERY FLAG.

Air—Auld Lang Syne.

Fling out the Anti-slavery flag

On every swelling breeze;

And let its folds wave o’er the land,

And o’er the raging seas,

Till all beneath the standard sheet,

With new allegiance bow;

And pledge themselves to onward bear

The emblem of their vow.

Fling out the Anti-slavery flag,

And let it onward wave

Till it shall float o’er every clime,

And liberate the slave;

Till, like a meteor flashing far,

It bursts with glorious light,

And with its Heaven-born rays dispels

The gloom of sorrow’s night.

Fling out the Anti-slavery flag,

And let it not be furled,

Till like a planet of the skies,

It sweeps around the world.

And when each poor degraded slave,

Is gathered near and far;

O, fix it on the azure arch,

As hope’s eternal star.

Fling out the Anti-slavery flag,

Forever let it be

The emblem to a holy cause,

The banner of the free.

And never from its guardian height,

Let it by man be driven,

But let it float forever there,

Beneath the smiles of heaven.