Excerpt from STANZAS ON FREEDOM
James Russell Lowell
Man! Whose boast it is that ye come of fathers brave and free,
If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain,
When it works a brother’s pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed, Slaves unworthy to be freed?
Women! Who shall one day bear
Sons to breathe New England (Indian?) air,
if ye hear, without blush,
Deeds to make the roused blood rush
like red lava through your veins,
For your sisters now in chains– Answer!
Are ye fit to be Mother of the brave and free?
Is true freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget