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

Chapter 39: THERE’S A GOOD TIME COMING.
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.

THERE’S A GOOD TIME COMING.

There’s a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming;
There’s a good time coming, boys,
Wait a little longer.
We may not live to see the day,
But earth shall glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming;
Cannon balls may aid the truth,
But thought’s a weapon stronger;
We’ll win our battle by its aid,
Wait a little longer.
O, there’s a good time, &c.
There’s a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming;
The pen shall supersede the sword,
And right not might shall be the lord,
In the good time coming.
Worth, not birth shall rule mankind,
And be acknowledged stronger,
The proper impulse has been given,
Wait a longer.
O, there’s a good time, &c.
There’s a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming;
Hateful rivalries of creed,
Shall not make their martyrs bleed,
In the good time coming.
Religion shall be shorn of pride,
And flourish all the stronger;
And Charity shall trim her lamp,
Wait a little longer.
O, there’s a good time, &c.
There’s a good time coming, boys,
A good time coming;
War in all men’s eyes shall be
A monster of iniquity,
In the good time coming.
Nations shall not quarrel then,
To prove which is the stronger;
Nor slaughter men for glory’s sake,
Wait a little longer.
O, there’s a good time, &c.