Written on receiving a cane wrought from a fragment of the wood-work of Pennsylvania Hall which the fire had spared. TOKEN of friendship true and tried, From one whose fiery heart of youth With mine has beaten, side by side, For Liberty and Truth; With honest pride the gift I take, And prize it for […]

OF THE FRIENDS OF EMANCIPATION, HELD IN LONDON IN 1840. Joseph Sturge, the founder of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, proposed the calling of a world’s anti-slavery convention, and the proposal was promptly seconded by the American Anti-Slavery Society. The call was addressed to “friends of the slave of every nation and of every […]

Written on reading an account of the proceedings of the citizens of Norfolk, Va., in reference to George Latimer, the alleged fugitive slave, who was seized in Boston without warrant at the request of James B. Grey, of Norfolk, claiming to be his master. The case caused great excitement North and South, and led to […]

In a publication of L. F. Tasistro–Random Shots and Southern Breezes– is a description of a slave auction at New Orleans, at which the auctioneer recommended the woman on the stand as “A GOOD CHRISTIAN!” It was not uncommon to see advertisements of slaves for sale, in which they were described as pious or as […]

Oh, from the fields of cane, From the low rice-swamp, from the trader’s cell; From the black slave-ship’s foul and loathsome hell, And coffle’s weary chain; Hoarse, horrible, and strong, Rises to Heaven that agonizing cry, Filling the arches of the hollow sky, How long, O God, how long? THE SENTENCE OF JOHN L. BROWN. […]

VOICE OF NEW ENGLAND. The poem immediately following indicates the intense feeling of the friends of freedom in view of the annexation of Texas, with its vast territory sufficient, as was boasted, for six new slave States. Up the hillside, down the glen, Rouse the sleeping citizen; Summon out the might of men! Like a […]

The poem immediately following indicates the intense feeling of the friends of freedom in view of the annexation of Texas, with its vast territory sufficient, as was boasted, for six new slave States. Written in 1844, on reading a call by “a Massachusetts Freeman” for a meeting in Faneuil Hall of the citizens of Massachusetts, […]

The poem immediately following indicates the intense feeling of the friends of freedom in view of the annexation of Texas, with its vast territory sufficient, as was boasted, for six new slave States. WHAT though around thee blazes No fiery rallying sign? From all thy own high places, Give heaven the light of thine! What […]

The poem immediately following indicates the intense feeling of the friends of freedom in view of the annexation of Texas, with its vast territory sufficient, as was boasted, for six new slave States. GOD bless New Hampshire! from her granite peaks Once more the voice of Stark and Langdon speaks. The long-bound vassal of the […]

The poem immediately following indicates the intense feeling of the friends of freedom in view of the annexation of Texas, with its vast territory sufficient, as was boasted, for six new slave States. Written on hearing that the Anti-Slavery Resolves of Stephen C. Phillips had been rejected by the Whig Convention in Faneuil Hall, in […]

John C. Calhoun, who had strongly urged the extension of slave territory by the annexation of Texas, even if it should involve a war with England, was unwilling to promote the acquisition of Oregon, which would enlarge the Northern domain of freedom, and pleaded as an excuse the peril of foreign complications which he had […]

Suggested by a visit to the city of Washington, in the 12th month of 1845. WITH a cold and wintry noon-light On its roofs and steeples shed, Shadows weaving with the sunlight From the gray sky overhead, Broadly, vaguely, all around me, lies the half-built town outspread. Through this broad street, restless ever, Ebbs and […]

Captain Jonathan Walker, of Harwich, Mass., was solicited by several fugitive slaves at Pensacola, Florida, to carry them in his vessel to the British West Indies. Although well aware of the great hazard of the enterprise he attempted to comply with the request, but was seized at sea by an American vessel, consigned to the […]

Written for the anniversary celebration of the first of August, at Milton, 7846. A FEW brief years have passed away Since Britain drove her million slaves Beneath the tropic’s fiery ray God willed their freedom; and to-day Life blooms above those island graves! He spoke! across the Carib Sea, We heard the clash of breaking […]

A STRENGTH Thy service cannot tire, A faith which doubt can never dim, A heart of love, a lip of fire, O Freedom’s God! be Thou to him! Speak through him words of power and fear, As through Thy prophet bards of old, And let a scornful people hear Once more Thy Sinai-thunders rolled. For […]

“Sebah, Oasis of Fezzan, 10th March, 1846.–This evening the female slaves were unusually excited in singing, and I had the curiosity to ask my negro servant, Said, what they were singing about. As many of them were natives of his own country, he had no difficulty in translating the Mandara or Bornou language. I had […]

Written during the discussion in the Legislature of that State, in the winter of 1846-47, of a bill for the abolition of slavery. THRICE welcome to thy sisters of the East, To the strong tillers of a rugged home, With spray-wet locks to Northern winds released, And hardy feet o’erswept by ocean’s foam; And to […]

Dr. Thacher, surgeon in Scammel’s regiment, in his description of the siege of Yorktown, says: “The labor on the Virginia plantations is performed altogether by a species of the human race cruelly wrested from their native country, and doomed to perpetual bondage, while their masters are manfully contending for freedom and the natural rights of […]

O MOTHER EARTH! upon thy lap Thy weary ones receiving, And o’er them, silent as a dream, Thy grassy mantle weaving, Fold softly in thy long embrace That heart so worn and broken, And cool its pulse of fire beneath Thy shadows old and oaken. Shut out from him the bitter word And serpent hiss […]

Written on hearing of the death of Silas Wright of New York. As they who, tossing midst the storm at night, While turning shoreward, where a beacon shone, Meet the walled blackness of the heaven alone, So, on the turbulent waves of party tossed, In gloom and tempest, men have seen thy light Quenched in […]