WHAT blest design in Albion’s Council moves,
Which earth with pleasure views, and heav’n approves?
‘Tis a design humanely just and kind,
Worthy to share each free-born Briton’s mind:
Each free-born Briton the design maintains,
To break inglorious Slav’ry’s galling chains;
To cheer the woe-fraught soul, to sooth distress,
With Freedom’s ray far-distant climes to bless;
To check the proud, impetuous tyrant’s rage,
And thraldom’s keenest miseries asswage.
Too long the vile reproach has stain’d our land,
Of arming Cruelty’s despotic hand
With legal pow’r, to render most forlorn
Th’ unhappy men in Afric’s regions born;
To seize and hale them from their native shore,
Force them to toil and swell their master’s store!
To break the dearest, tend’rest ties of life,
Rend from the husband’s arms the much-lov’d wife!
Fond parents from their weeping babes to force,
Viewing the plaintive tear without remorse!
More cruel yet to seize the infant train,
Regardless of the poignant, deep-felt pain,
Which will the parents’ tortur’d minds oppress,
Who for their wrongs (though great) have no redress;
The grief that must the father’s heart o’erflow!
The mother’s frantic ecstacy of woe!
Robb’d of her only hope, her darling care,
She beats her breast, and tears her woolly hair;
In bitt’rest anguish her complaints increase,
Against the fell destroyers of her peace.
Perhaps the tender youth thus snatch’d away,
O’er fable nations would have borne the sway!
Perhaps some princess to an empire born,
Sad change of fate! now doom’d to endless scorn;
To bear th’ oppressive yoke, to feel the thong,
And drag a weight of misery along!
Behold the wretched victims in despair,
Torn from each joy, the sharpest woes to share;
Depriv’d of ev’ry blessing life affords,
Loaded with fetters by their rigid lords;
Deny’d the comforts of the social hour,
Condemn’d to feel the iron hand of Pow’r!
That man must be of worse than savage kind,
Who views such objects with unfeeling mind.
His heart he trebly steel’d against distress,
Who can his fellow-creatures thus oppress.
Were they not made-by that Creator’s hand,
Who form’d the natives of a fairer land?
Are not their species and our own the same?
In colour only differing, not in name?
By nature are they not endu’d with pow’rs,
Affections, feelings, sense, and life like ours?
Witness that man of their despised race,
Whose genius claim’d him an exalted place
Amongst the sons of learning, wit, and fame,
Whose native worth deserves a deathless name;
His heart with ev’ry virtuous passion glow’d,
Bright sense was his, by nature’s hand bestow’d;
Which proves–in their uncultur’d minds are sown
The seeds of knowledge equal with our own:
And shall we rob them of the bliss design’d
By Heav’n, the common right of all mankind?
Of liberty, to ev’ry soul most dear?
No! Britons will no more the censure bear;
Britons, whose deeds with lasting fame are crown’d,
For ev’ry gen’rous virtue long renown’d;
Who have from age to age preserv’d the smile
Of glorious Freedom on their native isle,
Be it their pride her influence to extend,
Where’er the sun’s bright rays their radiance lend;
And to their foes leave that ignoble strife–
For sordid gain to barter human life.
O ye amongst the framers of our laws,
The first to plead the hapless negroes’ cause;
Ye patriot sons of Liberty, proceed,
Dare to complete the gen’rous, godlike deed;
Go, wrest the scourge from vile Oppression’s hand,
Make Britain’s name rever’d in ev’ry land;
Go tell the wretch whose base, corrupted mind
Self-int’rest warps, and false opinions blind;
Who waves o’er human race th’ oppressor’s rod,
The helpless suff’rers trembling at his nod;
Tell him Britannia scorns, as sons, to own
Men to whose breasts soft Pity stands unknown;
Bid him act worthy of th’ illustrious name,
Or ne’er expect to share a Briton’s fame.
Then shall our land with added greatness rise,
Blest by the mighty Pow’r who rules the skies;
In whose esteem the swarthy Ethiop stands,
High as the fairest sons of Europe’s lands.
O! may sweet Mercy’s angel form divine,
Deign o’er the world with softest beams to shine;
May heav’n-inspir’d Philanthropy increase,
And through each realm spread Liberty and Peace.
(Elizabeth Bentley)
More Poetry from Elizabeth Bentley:
Elizabeth Bentley Poems based on Topics: Mind, Joy & Excitement, Soul, Life, Sadness, War & Peace, Happiness, Nature, Smiling, Sense & Perception, Name- The Prodigal Son (Elizabeth Bentley Poems)
- Ode To Melancholy (Elizabeth Bentley Poems)
- Ode To Summer (Elizabeth Bentley Poems)
- The Virtues. An Ode. (Elizabeth Bentley Poems)
- On The Return Of Peace And Plenty (Elizabeth Bentley Poems)
- An Ode, On The Glorious Victory Over The French & Spanish Fleets (Elizabeth Bentley Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Life Poems, World Poems, Mind Poems, Sadness Poems, Soul Poems, Nature Poems, War & Peace Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Name Poems, Hope PoemsBased on Keywords: endu, thraldom, free-born, asswage, far-distant, despotic, ethiop, arming, destroyers, rers, opinions