by Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895)
Slave Song
Language: English
Go on, go on, oh ships! You are loosed from your moorings...[you] are free; [and] I am fast in my chains...a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom's swift-winged angels, that fly [a]round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks...under your protecting wing! Go on, go on, oh ships! ...Why was I born a man...to make a brute! Why am I a slave? O God, save me... deliver me! Let me be free! [I shall not live and die as a slave.] I will not stand it. Get caught, or get clear, I'll try it...I had [rather get]... killed running as die standing. Go on, go on, oh ships! ...Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free!... I will take to the water. I will...walk straight through Delaware... and when I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass. Go on, go on, oh ships! Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! [Shall I] try it?
Excerpt from Chapter 10 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This is a prose text; the line-breaks are arbitrary.
Text Authorship:
- by Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895), written 1845 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork (b. 1941), "Slave Song", 1996. [ sung text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-02-06
Line count: 17
Word count: 198