Denial and Determination
(The Slave Experience in Colonial America)
Margaret V.Doran
They're just niggers and everyone knows
that they aren't human for the Bible clearly shows
when Eve made Adam sin, their eyes were opened
and they were embarrassed by their nakedness
so God made for humans, clothes
Just look at 'em now and you'll know why I contend
that this is true and I'll ask you to suspend
your arguments; they have no merit
for it's only animals that run wild and naked
and I will not allow you to pretend
that it is otherwise; this I will not permit
nor will I allow you to omit
that they are totally different and unhumanlike
in their color and their hair and their physique;
they are but animals with little wit
And as any other animal that I may strike
I'll do it with impunity as I may like
It is my duty to quell any appearance of pride
for animals have naught and we must pledge
to keep them in their place with efforts oblique
You may not accuse me of genocide
this spurious opinion I will not abide
if deaths may happen it is but fate
and since animals as you may know are without souls
there is nothing of my actions I feel compelled to hide
As to my motives? 'Tis but to facilitate
provisions for my loving family and I stipulate
that they are so good and Godly they deserve
all that I can by any means provide
and that, Sir, puts an end to this debate!
Lodged deep in my soul there is within me
a faith so strong that even in broken humility
it keeps me through the long and gruesome days
and burns a deep and smoldering fire
this coal is the hot tempered spark of my dignity
that cannot be extinguished through the haze
of pain and torture; always it is there to raise
me up mixed with the hatred in my mind
these whips, these chains they have no power
to take from me this self-sustaining blaze
and they in arrogant ignorance so blind
think fear of pain and dying make me mind
yet I know that I withstand to wait the day
that vindicated I with pride stand tall
and seize my place with all of humankind
If death doth take me first do not dismay
for the coal will not extinguish come what may
but thus compressed become a diamond rare
and glitter brightly for posterity
that my people will not my memory betray
We cannot warn our families to beware
and know that evil men will set the snare
and captured others follow in our wake
but this we know: that we must persevere
and even in the depths of deep despair
still we must cleave to that which will not break
the pride within; all else we must forsake
'til such a day when manacles fall free
prepare our children for their rightful place
when of every potentiality they shall partake
Rise up, then, children and remember me
claim as with one voice your pedigree
take pride in that of which you are
and rise above all that which came before
accept the brilliant diamond of possibility.
Copyright © 2001 Margaret V.
Doran. All rights reserved.
If you enjoyed this poem, please send her an e-mail here. 
Updated February 8, 2001
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