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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 8: THE NORTH STAR.
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.

THE NORTH STAR.

Air—Oh! Susannah.
Lo! the Northern Star is beaming
With a new and glorious light,
And its cheering radiance streaming
Through the clouds of misty night!
Freemen! in your great Endeavor,
’Tis a signal hung on high,
And will guide us on forever,
Like a banner in the sky!
Oh! Star of Freedom,
’Tis the star for me;
’Twill lead me off to Canada,
There I will be free.
Growing brighter in all ages,
Cheering Freedom on its way,
Shedding o’er Time’s clouded pages
Glimmers of the coming Day—
Ever telling Man the glory
And the freedom of its birth,
Waiting to record the story
Of the Freedom of the Fourth!
Oh! Star of Freedom,
’Tis the star for me,
’Twill lead me off to Canada,
There I will be free.
The mariner, ’mid the surging
Of the stormy waves and dark,
Hails the Northern Star emerging
From the clouds above his bark!
’Tis a trust that faileth never,
And a light that never dies—
’Tis the beacon-star forever
Beaming in the arctic skies!
Oh! Star of Freedom,
’Tis the star for me,
’Twill lead me off to Canada,
There I will be free.
’Tis the star that Freedom claimeth
As her emblem pure and bright,
And we watch it as it flameth
“In the dark and troubled night:”
While we march to battle glorious,
With our weapons, Truth and Love,
Freedom, as she proves victorious,
Hails the Banner Star above!
Oh! Star of Freedom, &c.