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The Columbiad: Book VIII

The Argument

Hymn to Peace. Eulogy on the heroes slain in the war; in which the Author finds occasion to mention his Brother. Address to the patriots who have survived the conflict; exhorting them to preserve liberty they have established. The danger of losing it by inattention illustrated in the rape of the Golden Fleece. Freedom succeeding to Despotism in the moral world, like Order succeeding to Chaos in the physical world. Atlas, the guardian Genius of Africa, denounces to Hesper the crimes of his people in the slavery of the Afripans. The Author addresses his countrymen on that subject, and on the principles of their government.

Hesper, recurring to his object of showing Columbus the importance of his discoveries, reverses the order of time, and exhibits the continent again in its savage state. He then displays the progress of arts in America. Fur-trade. Fisheries. Productions. Commerce. Education. Philosophical discoveries. Painting. Poetry.

Hail, holy Peace, from thy sublime abode
Mid circling saints that grace the throne of God!
Before his arm around our embryon earth
Stretch'd the dim void, and gave to nature birth.
Ere morning stars his glowing chambers hung,
Or songs of gladness woke an angel's tongue,
Veil'd in the splendors of his beamful mind,
In blest repose thy placid form reclined,
Lived in his life, his inward sapience caught,
And traced and toned his universe of thought.
Borne thro the expanse with his creating voice
Thy presence bade the unfolding worlds rejoice,

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poem by Joel Barlow
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Orlando Furioso Canto 20

ARGUMENT
Guido and his from that foul haunt retire,
While all Astolpho chases with his horn,
Who to all quarters of the town sets fire,
Then roving singly round the world is borne.
Marphisa, for Gabrina's cause, in ire
Puts upon young Zerbino scathe and scorn,
And makes him guardian of Gabrina fell,
From whom he first learns news of Isabel.

I
Great fears the women of antiquity
In arms and hallowed arts as well have done,
And of their worthy works the memory
And lustre through this ample world has shone.
Praised is Camilla, with Harpalice,
For the fair course which they in battle run.
Corinna and Sappho, famous for their lore,
Shine two illustrious light, to set no more.

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poem by Ludovico Ariosto
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Civilization requires slaves. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.

quote by Oscar Wilde
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The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture, and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.

quote by Oscar Wilde
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Slavery

I found blinded slavery: a persons’
Present tied to their parents’ past that urge
Them to yield to their traditions, worsened
By ancient spirits, fettered and scourged.
I found muted slavery: which mated
The life of a man to a wife he hates
And places her body in a hated
Husbands bed deadening both lives and fate.
I found deafened slavery: which stifles
The soul and heart of man rendering him
An empty echo, no voice, pitiful
Shadow of a body, a grim phantom.
No emancipation proclamation
Freed man from self-imposed subjugation.

poem by Albert Ahearn
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Delta Blues

From Mali to Memphis,
And of the odyssey of the West Africans in the name of slavery;
But today, a Blackman has made it to the top! !
Yes, the 44th U.S. President,
And like the Delta Blues with the petals of love.

Do not let your spirit down my friend!
But go for your dreams always by working towards them;
And from the sandy banks of the rivers of West Africa,
But the spirit of the slavery still lives on.

Delta Blues,
To be stoned to death of to be shot with arrows;
But slavery came in and took them away!
And like a premature birth to my people,
However, you will surely reach the heights if you surely believe.

poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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Song of The Coffle Gang

This song is said to be sung by Slaves, as they are chained in gangs,
when parting from friends for the far off South-children taken from
parents, husbands from wives, and brothers from sisters.

See these poor souls from Africa,
Transported to America:
We are stolen, and sold to Georgia, will you go along with me?
We are stolen and sold to Georgia, go sound the jubilee.

See wives and husbands sold apart,
The children's screams!-it breaks my heart;
There's a better day a coming, will you go along with me?
There's a better day a coming, go sound the jubilee.

O, gracious Lord? when shall it be,
That we poor souls shall all be free?
Lord, break them Slavery powers-will you go along with me?
Lord, break them Slavery powers, go sound the jubilee.

Dear Lord! dear Lord! when Slavery'll cease,

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poem by Anonymous Americas
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Goree Island

Goree Island!
And, of the speech from the Slave House;
For the records are very clear! !
And like the Africans being shipped to America in the 16th to the 19th Centuries,
But, where is the secret hid out of the Gold? !
To all flying insects and to all the things that moves on the ground,
And to stimulate creativity with the discreet of tears;
But, my people were sold out into slavery.
More slaves were sent to Brazil from Africa!
And like the storm at sea with the muse of the days gone by;
But, every person today shall give as he or she is capable of doing so.
Oh life, i am now swallowed by this great fish! !
But the aroma of this hole is in the secret yard of the red valley;
And like the Africans shipped out to America in the slavery days.
The works of the slaves and the muse of their love,
But the fiddle is now with the saddle!
And like the emotions of romance and the passions of love,
But, in Goree island i will always remember the days of slavery.

poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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The Sentence Of John L. Brown

Ho! thou who seekest late and long
A License from the Holy Book
For brutal lust and fiendish wrong,
Man of the Pulpit, look!
Lift up those cold and atheist eyes,
This ripe fruit of thy teaching see;
And tell us how to heaven will rise
The incense of this sacrifice —
This blossom of the gallows tree!
Search out for slavery's hour of need
Some fitting text of sacred writ;
Give heaven the credit of deed
Which shames the nether pit.
Kneel, smooth blasphemer, unto Him
Whose truth is on thy lips a lie;
Ask that His bright winged cherubim
May bend around that scaffold grim
To guard and bless and sanctify.
O champion of the people's cause!
Suspend thy loud and vain rebuke

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poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
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Amusing Trial, in Which a Yankee Lawyer Rendered a Just Verdict.

A Slave sold at Auction.
A time there was, when no one thought
It sin, to hold a slave he'd bought,
And of his strength have the command,
As much as of his house and land.
A Yankee Lawyer long had kept
A negro-man with whom he slept.

And ate, and Sabbath day,
He half the time from church would stay;
When Cuff his master's garments wore.—
'Twas strange you say, but he was poor;
And though he cared not for Cuff's soul,
Yet such the times, that on the whole,

'Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter draught.'—Sterne.
His slave must to the meeting go,
If 'twas for nothing but a show.

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poem by Anonymous Americas
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