Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Appalled</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I gasped at what I held in my two hands.<br>My son had handed me the leather whip, <br>A bullwhip, five feet long, a master used<br>To subjugate his slaves unto his will.<br>And then, he handed me the branding irons, <br>Which heated to a red-hot glow were used<br>To brand a human as a master's own.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I felt disgust, appalled, to think they scorched<br>A person's brow, or seared a woman's breast<br>To indicate a master's ownership<br>Of human beings. <br>Slaves were classified<br>As lower than the cattle in the field, <br>Who lived in quarters, a degree above, <br>What masters would provide for their prize pigs.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Slave girls were tagged as 'breeders, ' bred like dogs, <br>To bind in servitude their newborn child.<br>A slave was valued by his 'use, ' not by<br>His human value. He was bought and sold<br>Upon an auction block, with heifers, hogs<br>And brooder mares, like chattel on a farm.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Denied all self-respect and dignity, <br>Through burning indignation, slaves maintained<br>An inner purpose which prevailed despite<br>The efforts to debase them less than swine.<br>What was the mastic causing them to live<br>When death was far their better choice than life? <br>An old black man advised me of the cause.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'There was a bond of faith they found within<br>Their gospel, where they heard the Word of God, <br>Both sung and spoken from the church lectern.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A basic trust that God would elevate<br>Them from their desperate depravation. They<br>Endured because of those who were to come, <br>The future generations, whom they hoped<br>Could rise above the level, which the slaves<br>Themselves then lived. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Belief blazed up like fire<br>Through their religion. An awakening, <br>Had lighted the dark caves of their deep grief, <br>Ignited from the embers of their dreams.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=450583" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>(Free Verse)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Lynn+W.+Petty">Lynn W. Petty</a></strong></div>