SONGS

ON

THE ABOLITION OF NEGRO SLAVERY.

No. I.

THE RAINBOW.

SIGN of the passing storm,
Symbol of wrath gone by,
Born of the cloud and sun,-what form

Of beauty tracks the sky?

From Afric to the isles of slaves

The rainbow spans the' Atlantic waves.

Black, white, and bond, and free,

Castes and proscriptions cease;

The Negro wakes to liberty,

The Negro sleeps in peace;

Read the great charter on his brow,
"I AM a MAN, a BROTHER now."

No. II.

THE NEGRO IS FREE.

[To Moore's Melody of" Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea."]

BLOW ye the trumpet abroad o'er the sea;
Britannia hath conquer'd, the Negro is free:
Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken,
His scourges and fetters, all clotted with blood,
Are wrench'd from his grasp, for the word was
but spoken,

And fetters and scourges were plunged in the flood:
Blow ye the trumpet abroad o'er the sea,

Britannia hath conquer'd, the Negro is free.

Hail to Britannia, fair liberty's isle!

Her frown quail'd the tyrant, the slave caught her smile:

Fly on the winds to tell Afric the story;

Say to the mother of mourners, "Rejoice!" Britannia went forth, in her beauty, her glory,

And slaves sprang to men at the sound of her

voice:

-Praise to the God of our fathers; 'twas He,

JEHOVAH, that conquer'd, my country! by thee.

No. III.

SLAVERY THAT WAS.

AGES, ages have departed

Since the first dark vessel bore Afric's children, broken-hearted, To the Caribbean shore;

She like Rachel,

Weeping, for they were no more.

Millions, millions have been slaughter'd In the fight and on the deep; Millions, millions more have water'd, With such tears as captives weep,

Fields of travail,

Where their bones till doomsday sleep.

Mercy, mercy vainly pleading,

Rent her garments, smote her breast, Till a voice, from heaven proceeding, Gladden'd all the gloomy west, "Come, ye weary

!

Come, and I will give you rest!"

Tidings, tidings of salvation!

Britons rose with one accord,

Purged the plague-spot from our nation, Negroes to their rights restored;

Slaves no longer,

FREE-MEN,-FREE-MEN of the LORD.

No. IV.

SLAVERY THAT IS NOT.

GOD made all his creatures free;
Life itself is liberty ;

GOD ordain'd no other bands

Than united hearts and hands.

Sin the' eternal charter broke,
-Sin, itself earth's heaviest yoke;
Tyranny with sin began,

Man o'er brute, and man o'er man.

Pass five thousand pagan years
Of creation's groans and tears;
To oppression's climax come,
In the crimes of Christendom.

What were these?-Let Afric's sands,
Ocean's depths, West Indian strands,
In the day of wrath declare:
-Oh! the mercy that they were ;

For they are not,—cannot be ;
Life again is liberty ;