The Slave’s Lament Poem by Benjamin Cutler Clark

Can it be so? Has God intended
Me to be another's slave?
To toil in anguish, undefended,
From the cradle to the grave;
Yes, and bow my head in sorrow,
Lest I live to see the morrow?

If so, why am I not contented
To endure this hateful chain?
Why have I constantly invented
Schemes my liberty to gain;
And with firm, heroic brav'ry,
Ventur'd my life to flee from slav'ry?

No! God, in truth, condemns a system
That is wretched, vile, and base;
And e'en all nature bids the victim
Of it 'fly from its embrace!'
Now, I bid adieu to slav'ry—
Its woes, its wrongs, its cunning knav'ry.