Excerpt from 'Twasinta’s Seminoles / Rape of Florida'

Albery A. Whitman was born in 1851, Hart County, Kentucky, and lived an existence in slavery until 1863. Already an orphan by 12, he accomplished to be a well known minister of the AME church (African Methodist Episcopal Church) and a schoolteacher by the age of 25. He is known for his epic-length poem “Not a man and yet a Man” published in 1877, though his best known work is The Rape of Florida, published 1884, and reprinted the following year Twasinta’s Seminoles. In 1890 both poems were again reprinted along with some short poems. In 1893 he composed and read “The Freedman’s Triumphant Song” at the Chicago World’s Fair. The Octoroon, An Idyl of the South, his last publication, came out in 1901, the year he passed away. He fought a hard struggle with alcohol and pneumonia but he was a light in this world with his wonderful words.

The following excerpt is from Twasinta’s Seminoles / Rape of Florida.

Canto 1

I

The negro slave by Swanee River sang;

Well-pleased he listened to his echoes ringing;

For in his heart a secret comfort sprang,

When Nature seemed to join his mournful singing.

To mem’ry’s cherished objects fondly clinging;

His bosom felt the sunset’s patient glow,

And spirit whispers into weird life springing,

Allured to worlds he trusted yet to know,

And lightened for awhile life’s burdens here below.

II

The drowsy dawn from many a low-built shed,

Beheld his kindred driven to their task;

Late evening saw them turn with weary tread

And painful faces back; and dost thou ask

How sang these bondmen? how their suff’rings mask?

Song is the soul of sympathy divine,

And hath an inner ray where hope may bask;

Song turns the poorest waters into wine,

Illumines exile hearts and makes their faces shine.

III

The negro slave by Swanee river sang,

There soon the human hunter rode along;

And eagerly behind him came a gang

Of hounds and men, – the bondmen hushed his song –

Around him came a silent, list’ning throng;

“Some runaway!” he muttered; said no more,

But sank from view the growing corn among;

And though deep pangs his wounded spirit bore,

He hushed his soul, and went on singing as before.

IV

So fared the land where slaves were groaning yet –

Where beauty’s eyes must feed the lusts of men!

‘Tis as when horrid dreams we half forget,

Would then relate, and still relate again –

Ah! cold abhorrence hesitates my pen!

The heavens were sad, and hearts of men were faint;

Philanthropy implored and wept, but then

The wrong, unblushing trampled on Restraint,

While feeble Law sat by and uttered no complaint.

V

“Fly and be free!” a whisper comes from heaven,

“Thy cries are heard!” the bondman’s up and gone!

To grasp the dearest boon to mortals given,

He frantic flies, unaided and alone.

To him the red man’s dwellings are unknown;

But he can crave the freedom of his race,

Can find his harvests in the desert sown,

And in the cypress forest’s dark embrace

A pathway to his lonely habitations trace.

VI

The sable slave, from Georgia’s utmost bounds,

Escapes for life into the Great Wahoo.

Here he has left afar the savage hounds

And human hunters that did late pursue;

There in the hommock darkly hid from view,

His wretched limbs are stretched awhile to rest,

Till some kind Seminole shall guide him thro’

To where by hound nor hunter more distrest,

He in a flow’ry home, shall be the red man’s guest.

VII

If tilled profusion does not crown the view,

Nor wide-ranged farms begirt with fences spread;

The cultivated plot is well to do;

And where no slave his groaning life has led,

The songs of plenty fill the lowliest shed.

Who could wish more, when Nature, always green,

Brings forth fruit-bearing woods and fields of bread?

Wish more, where cheerful valleys bloom between,

And herds browse on the hills, where winter ne’er has been?

[…]

X

Fair Florida! whose scenes could so enhance –

Could in the sweetness of the earth excel!

Wast thou the Seminole’s inheritance?

Yea, it was thee he loved, and loved so well!

‘Twas ‘neath thy palms and pines he strove to dwell.

Not savage, but resentful to the knife,

For these he sternly struggled – sternly fell!

Thoughtful and brave, in a long uneven strife,

He held the verge of manhood mid the heights of life.

XI

A wild-born pride endeared him to thy soil!

When roamed his herds without a keeper’s care –

Where man knew not the pangs of slavish toil!

And where thou didst not blooming pleasures spare,

But well allotted each an ample share,

He loved to dwell: Oh! isn’t the goal of life

Where man has plenty and to man is fair?

When free from avarice’s pinch and strife,

Is earth not like the Eden-home of man and wife?

[…]

XIX

Oh! sing it in the light of freedom’s morn,

Tho’ tyrant wars have made the earth a grave;

The good, the great, and true, are, if so, born,

And so with slaves, chains do not make the slave!

If high-souled birth be what the mother gave, –

If manly birth, and manly to the core, –

Whate’er the test, the man will he behave!

Crush him to earth and crush him o’er and o’er,

A man he’ll rise at last and meet you as before.

XX

So with our young Atlassa*, hero-born, –

Free as the air within his palmy shade,

The nobler traits that do the man adorn,

In him were native: Not the music made

In Tampa’s forests or the everglade

Was fitter than in this young Seminole

Was the proud spirit which did life pervade,

And glow and tremble in his ardent soul –

Which, lit his inmost-self, and spurned all mean control.

XXI

Than him none followed chase with nimbler feet,

None readier in the forest council rose;

To speak for war, e’er sober and discreet,

In battle stern, but kind to fallen foes;

He led the charge, but halted, – slow to close

The vexed retreat: In front of battle he,

Handsome and wild his proud form would expose;

But in the cheering van of victory,

Gentle and brave he was the real chief to see.

XXII

Lo! mid a thousand warriors where he stands,

Pride of all hearts and idol of his race!

Look how the chieftains of his war-tried bands

Kindle their courage in his valiant face!

And as his lips in council open, trace

How deep suspense her earnest furrows makes

On ev’ry brow! How rings the forest-place

With sounding cheers! when native valor wakes

His dark intrepid eyes, and he their standard takes!

XXIII

Proud spirit of the hommock-bounded home

Well wast thy valor like a buckler worn!

And when the light of the other times shall come, –

When history’s muse shall venture to adorn

The brow of all her children hero-born, –

When the bold truth to man alike assigns

The place he merits, of no honor shorn;

The wreath shall be, that thy proud brow entwines,

As green as Mickasukie’s** everlasting pines!

XXIV

Well bled thy warriors at their leader’s side!

Well stood they the oppressor’s wasting fire;

For years sweep on, and in their noiseless tide,

Bear down the mem’ries of the past! The dire

And gloomful works of tyrants shall exire,

Till naught survives, save truth’s great victories;

Then shall the voyager on his way aspire

To ponder what vast wrecks of time he sees,

And on Fame’s temple columns read their memories!

XXV

Not so with Osceola***, thy dark mate;

The hidden terror of the hommock, he

Sat gloomily and nursed a bitter hate, –

The white man was his common enemy –

He rubbed the burning wounds of injury,

And plotted in his dreadful silent gloom;

As dangerous as a rock within the sea.

And when in fray he showed his fearless plume,

Revenge made sweet the blows that dealt the white man’s doom.

XXVI

The pent-up wrath that rankled in his breast,

O’er smould’ring embers shot a lurid glare,

And wrongs that time itself had not redrest,

In ghost-like silence stalked and glimmered there.

And from the wizard caverns of despair,

Came voice and groan, reminding o’er and o’er

The outrage on his wife so young and fair;

And so, by heaven and earth and hell he swore

To treat in council with the white man never more.

XXVII

Such were the chiefs who led their daring braves

In many a battle nobly lost or won,

And consecrated Mickasukie’s graves

To that sweet province of the summer sun!

And still shall history forgetful run?

Shall legend too be mute? then Poesy,

Divinest chronicler of deeds well done,

From the blest shrine and annals of the free,

Sing forth thy praise and man shall hear attentively.

XXVIII

The poorest negro coming to their shore,

To them was brother – their own flesh and blood, –

They sought his wretched manhood to restore, –

They found his hidings in the swampy wood,

And brought him forth – in arms before him stood, –

The citizens of God and Sovran earth, –

They shot straight forward looks with flame imbued,

Till in him manhood sprang, a noble birth,

And warrior-armed he rose to all that manhood’s worth.

XXIX

On the dark front of battle often seen,

Or holding dang’rous posts through dreadful hours, –

In ranks obedient, in command serene,

His comrades learn to note the tested powers

Which prove that valor is not always ours,

Be whomsoever we: A common race

Soon from this union flows – soon rarest flowers

Bloom out and smile in beauty’s blending grace,

And rivals they become for love’s sublimest place.

XXX

The native warrior leads his ebon maid,

The dark young brave his bloom-hued lover wins;

And where soft spruce and willows mingle shade,

Young life mid sunniest hours its course begins:

All Nature pours its never-ending dins

In groves of rare-hued leaf without’n end, –

‘Tis as if Time, forgetting Eden’s sins,

Relents, and spirit visitors descend

In love’s remembered tokens, earth once more to blend.

XXXI

The sleepy mosses wave within the sun,

And on the dark elms climbs the mistletoe;

Great tangled vines through pendant branches run,

And hang their purple clusters far below;

The old pines wave their summits to and fro,

And dancing to the earth, impatient light

Touches the languid scene, to quickly go,

Like some gay spirit in its sunny plight,

That, visiting the earth, did glance and take its flight…

* “Atlassa” refers to Wild Cat, also called Coacoochee, who was a leading Seminole chief during the 2^nd Seminole War

** Miccosukee – name of a Native American tribe and an area in Florida

*** Osceola was an influential leader and war leader among the Seminoles

Documentaries

I have a link to share with one and all. It is called DBC Info TV and it provides various documentaries on many subjects. For example it currently has The Coconut Revolution from 2001 which shows the indigenous people of Bougainville and their fight against exploitation of the land. All the documentaries on the station are enlightening so be sure to inform yourselves.

DBC Info Tv

"Bury Me In a Free Land" by Frances Harper

Make me a grave where’er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill;
Naje ut anibg earth’s humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.

I could not rest if around my grave
I heard the steps of a trembling slave;
His shadow above my silent tomb
Would make it a place of fearful gloom.

I could not rest I heard the tread
Of a coffle gang to the shambles led,
And the mother’s shriek of wild despair
Rise like a curse on the trembling air.

I could not sleep if I saw the lash
Drinking her blood at each fearful gash,
And I saw her babes torn from her breast,
Like trembling doves from their parent nest.

I’d shudder and start if I heard the bay
Of bloodhounds seizing their human prey,
And I heard the captive plead in vain
As they bound afresh his galling chain.

If I saw young girls from their mothers’ arms
Bartered and sold for their youthful charms,
My eye would flash with a mournful flame,
My death-paled cheek grow red with shame.

I would sleep, dear friends, where bloated might
Can rob no man of his dearest right;
My rest shall be calm in any grave
Where none can call his brother a slave.

I ask no monument, proud and high,
To arrest the gaze of the passers-by;
All that my yearning spirit craves,
Is bury me not in a land of slaves.

"The Slave Auction" by Frances Harper

The sale began – young girls were there,

Defenceless in their wretchedness,
Whose stifled sobs of deep despair
Revealed their anguish and distress.

And mothers stood with streaming eyes,
And saw their dearest children sold;
Unheeded rose their bitter cries,
While tyrants bartered them for gold.

And woman, with her love and truth –
For these in sable forms may dwell –
Gaz’d on the husband of her youth,
With anguish none may paint or tell.

And men, whose sole crime was their hue,
The impress of their Maker’s hand,
And frail and shrinking children, too,
Were gathered in that mournful band.

Ye who have laid your love to rest,
And wept above their lifeless clay,
Know not the anguish of that breast,
Whose lov’d are rudely torn away.

Ye may not know how desolate
Are bosoms rudely forced to part,
And how a dull and heavy weight
Will press the life-drops from the heart.

Eurocentric Agenda in Arizona School District

An ethnic studies program has been terminated and books concerning "race, ethnicity and oppression" have been banned, even a play called "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare.

It is an attempt from America's side to create a perfect and pure still picture of the country which has never existed. Or "part of a curriculum change to avoid 'biased, political and emotionally charged' teaching" as CNN put it. It is a damn shame, America.

Read the full story here:

Ethnic book ban in Arizona school district

Mine - a Story of a Sacred Mountain

”Eliza Harris” by Frances Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, 1825-1911, was a dear poet and lecturer of the Anti-Slavery Society connected to the Abolitionist movement, the Underground Railroad, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and the A. M. E. Church. Her first volume, Poems on Various Subjects, was published in 1854, and later followed by Moses: A Story of the Nile (1869), Poems (1871) and Sketches of Southern Life (1872). Here you have the poem “Eliza Harris”:

Like a fawn from the arrow, startled and wild,

A woman swept by us, bearing a child;

In her eye was the night of a settled despair,

And her brow was o’ershaded with anguish and care.

She was nearing the river – in reaching the brink,

She heeded no danger, she paused not to think;

For she is a mother – her child is a slave –

And she’ll give him his freedom, or find him a grave!

It was a vision to haunt us, that innocent face –

So pale in its aspect, so fair in its grace;

As the tramp of the horse and the bay of the hound,

With the fetters that gall, were trailing the ground!

She was nerv’d by despair, and strengthened by woe,

As she leap’d o’er the chasms that yawn’d from below;

Death howl’d in the tempest, and rav’d in the blast,

But she heard not the sound till the danger was past.

Oh! how shall I speak of my proud country’s shame?

Of the stains on her glory, how give them their name?

How say that her banner in mockery waves –

Her “star spangled banner” – o’er millions of slaves?

How say that the lawless may torture and chase

A woman whose crime is the hue of her face?

How the depths of the forest may echo around,

With the shrieks of despair, and the bay of the hound?

With her step on the ice, and her arm on her child,

The danger was fearful, the pathway was wild;

But, aided by Heaven, she gained a free shore,

Where the friends of humanity open’d their door.

So fragile and lovely, so fearfully pale,

Like a lily that bends to the breath of the gale,

Save the heave of her breast, and the sway of her hair,

You’d have thought her a statue of fear and despair.

In agony close to her bossom she press’d

The life of her heart, the child of her breast: –

Oh! love from its tenderness gathering might,

Had strengthen’d her soul for the dangers of flight.

But she’s free! – yes, free from the land where the slave

From the hand of oppression must rest in the grave;

Where bondage and torture, where scourges and chains

Have plac’d on our banner indelible stains.

The bloodhounds have miss’d the scent of her way;

The hunter is rifled and foil’d of his prey;

Fierce jargon and cursing, with clanking of chains,

Make sounds of strange discord on Liberty’s plains.

With the rapture of love and fullness of bliss,

She placed on his brow a mother’s fond kiss: –

O poverty, danger and death she can brave,

For the child of her love is no longer a slave!