To be inside slavery and then to be out;
to be under masters and then be without.
Can there be any greater freedom to earn?
Once in bondage, now free. Are there lessons to learn?

A greater injustice no man can do
than to subjugate others in a system so cruel.
To live like kings off the labor of others;
to whip them, kill them, and rape future mothers.

To assume its one’s right to steal humans from home;
to chain down their lives to lift up one’s own.
To eliminate hope for a better tomorrow,
and not give a damn at the breadth of their sorrow.

To cut off strong limbs to ward off aggression;
to separate families for profit or lesson;
to live with the fear that their masters would sell them.
These were the slaves’ lives in times antebellum.

Such awful treatment would leave any one seething,
and wanting to be free as long as they’re breathing.
Is there any doubt why slaves fought to be free then?
An amazing faith graced that a just God would free them.

Leaders send troops to fight for our “freedom.”
But abuse of that word sometimes loses its meaning.
Being already free, we live as we choose;
our life and prosperity not threatened to lose.

But slave times are lost in our memory bank;
not easy to discuss without being too frank.
We wish not to speak of what whites did to blacks;
no fitting self-image when strapped to our backs.

We cannot square our ideals with this truth,
so we hide it away and ignore the proof.
Is it willful ignorance or desire to forget?
We know that accounting has gone on unmet.

Society worked to keep slave days in mystery.
How can it be muted in learning our history?
That the civil war ending meant black liberation
runs counter to southern, states’ rights education.

Yes, slaves were inside, their descendants are out.
But the facts of enslavement can leave no doubt
that we owe it to those who were trapped in this hell
to tell of this story and remember it well.

David Grim, May 2007 (revised)