Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete

THE SENTENCE OF JOHN L. BROWN

     Oh, from the fields of cane,
     From the low rice-swamp, from the trader's cell;
     From the black slave-ship's foul and loathsome hell,
     And coffle's weary chain;
     Hoarse, horrible, and strong,
     Rises to Heaven that agonizing cry,
     Filling the arches of the hollow sky,
     How long, O God, how long?