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

Chapter 41: OFT IN THE CHILLY NIGHT.

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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.

OFT IN THE CHILLY NIGHT.

Oft in the chilly night,

Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,

When all her silvery light

The moon is pouring round me,

Beneath its ray I kneel and pray,

That God would give some token

That slavery’s chains on Southern plains,

Shall all ere long be broken;

Yes, in the chilly night,

Though slavery’s chain has bound me,

Kneel I, and feel the might

Of God’s right arm around me.

When at the driver’s call,

In cold or sultry weather,

We slaves, both great and small,

Turn out to toil together,

I feel like one from whom the sun

Of hope has long departed;

And morning’s light, and weary night,

Still find me broken-hearted;

Thus, when the chilly breath

Of night is sighing round me,

Kneel I, and wish that death

In his cold chain had bound me.