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"THE FLIGHT OF THE SLAVE." Words by Geo. R. Sims; Music by Ivan Caryll. London: Hopwood & Crew, c. 1875. From Uncle Tom's Cabin, Musical Tableaux Vivants, Performed by the Moore & Burgess Minstrels.  Clifton Waller Barrett Collection University of Virginia |
From the dark shores of Bondage a fugitive flies; Fierce blows the tempest and black are the skies, The land she is flying where slaves are oppress'd, Her boy madly clasp'd to her fierce heaving breast. Her eyes start in terror, her accents are wild, Kind Heaven protect them, the mother and child! Kind Heaven protect them, the mother and child! She nears the wide river in Winter's chains bound; The breaking ice crashes, she hears a dread sound-- 'Tis the voice of the tyrant who claims her as slave: She springs on the ice that the mad waters lave. She has leap'd from the land by oppression defiled, 'Tis Freedom or Death for the mother and child! 'Tis Freedom or Death for the mother and child! There's a lull in the tempest--from black clouds of night, The moon bursts in splendour her pathway to light, Her babe wakes in terror, she shrieks a wild pray'r-- She's lost! No, thank Heaven, she's safe, she is there, In that fair Land of Freedom where none are reviled, Its banner floats proudly o'er mother and child! Its banner floats proudly o'er mother and child! |
