Prayer Of The Oppressed Poem by James Monroe Whitfield

Oh great Jehovah! God of love,
Thou monarch of the earth and sky,
Canst thou from thy great throne above
Look down with an unpitying eye? -


See Afric's sons and daughters toil,
Day after day, year after year,
Upon this blood-bemoistened soil,
And to their cries turn a deaf ear?


Canst thou the white oppressor bless
With verdant hills and fruitful plains,
Regardless of the slave's distress,
Unmindful of the black man's chains.


How long, oh Lord! ere thou wilt speak
In thy Almighty thundering voice,
To bid the oppressor's fetters break,
And Ethiopia's sons rejoice.


How long shall Slavery's iron grip,
And Prejudice's guilty hand,
Send forth, like blood-hounds from the slip,
Foul persecutions o'er the land?


How long shall puny mortals dare
To violate thy just decree,
And force their fellow-men to wear
The galling chain on land and sea?


Hasten, oh Lord! the glorious time
When everywhere beneath the skies,
From every land and every clime,
Peans to Liberty shall rise!


When the bright sun of liberty
Shall shine o'er each despotic land,
And all mankind, from bondage free,
Adore the wonders of thy hand.