Tags: Poem.
Bury Me in a Free Land is a poem by Frances Harper an African American abolitionist and poet.Make me a grave where’er you willIn a lowly plain or a lofty hill;Make it among earth’s humblest gravesBut not in a land where men are slaves.I could not rest if around my graveI heard the steps of a trembling slave;His shadow above my silent tombWould make it a place of fearful gloom.I could not rest if I heard the treadOf a coffle gang to the shambles ledAnd the mother’s shriek of wild despairRise like a curse on the trembling air.I could not sleep if I saw the lashDrinking her blood at each fearful gashAnd I saw her babes torn from her breastLike trembling doves from their parent nest.I’d shudder and start if I heard the bayOf bloodhounds seizing their human preyAnd I heard the captive plead in vainAs they bound afresh his galling chain.If I saw young girls from their mother’s armsBartered and sold for their youthful charmsMy eye would flash with a mournful flameMy death-paled cheek grow red with shame.I would sleep dear friends where bloated mightCan rob no man of his dearest right;My rest shall be calm in any graveWhere none can call his brother a slave.I ask no monument proud and highTo arrest the gaze of the passers-by;All that my yearning spirit cravesIs bury me not in a land of slaves.