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

AT PORT ROYAL.

In November, 1861, a Union force under Commodore Dupont and General Sherman captured Port Royal, and from this point as a basis of operations, the neighboring islands between Charleston and Savannah were taken possession of. The early occupation of this district, where the negro population was greatly in excess of the white, gave an opportunity which was at once seized upon, of practically emancipating the slaves and of beginning that work of civilization which was accepted as the grave responsibility of those who had labored for freedom.

     THE tent-lights glimmer on the land,
     The ship-lights on the sea;
     The night-wind smooths with drifting sand
     Our track on lone Tybee.

     At last our grating keels outslide,
     Our good boats forward swing;
     And while we ride the land-locked tide,
     Our negroes row and sing.

     For dear the bondman holds his gifts
     Of music and of song
     The gold that kindly Nature sifts
     Among his sands of wrong:

     The power to make his toiling days
     And poor home-comforts please;
     The quaint relief of mirth that plays
     With sorrow's minor keys.

     Another glow than sunset's fire
     Has filled the west with light,
     Where field and garner, barn and byre,
     Are blazing through the night.

     The land is wild with fear and hate,
     The rout runs mad and fast;
     From hand to hand, from gate to gate
     The flaming brand is passed.

     The lurid glow falls strong across
     Dark faces broad with smiles
     Not theirs the terror, hate, and loss
     That fire yon blazing piles.

     With oar-strokes timing to their song,
     They weave in simple lays
     The pathos of remembered wrong,
     The hope of better days,—

     The triumph-note that Miriam sung,
     The joy of uncaged birds
     Softening with Afric's mellow tongue
     Their broken Saxon words.