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Original Anti-Slavery Songs: Queen Victoria Conversing with Her Slave Children

Original Anti-Slavery Songs
Queen Victoria Conversing with Her Slave Children
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table of contents
  1. Title Page
  2. Preface
  3. Freedom's Cause
  4. The African Girl
  5. All Things Speak
  6. Freedom's Call
  7. The Fugitive in Montreal
  8. The First of August in Jamaica
  9. The Slaveholder's Rest
  10. Queen Victoria Conversing with Her Slave Children
  11. Away to Canada
  12. Old Liberia is Not the Place for Me
  13. Celebration Adieu
  14. Emancipation Car
  15. The Little Maid On Her Way
  16. Final image

QUEEN VICTORIA CONVERSING WITH HER
SLAVE CHILDREN.

  Air--"Come come away."

QUEEN.
O come! come away, my sable sons & daughters
             Why linger there
             In the dark despair?
             O come! O come away!
         On Eria's northern banks I stand,
         With open arms, and stretched out hands;
         From tyrant Columbia's land
             O come! come away!


SLAVES.
             O, mother Victoria,
             Why do you thus torment us?
             Do you not see
             That we're not free,
             And can't come away?
         We're watched by day and chained by night;
         Both robbed of liberty and right;
         While crushed by the oppreessor's might
             We can't come away.

QUEEN.
O come! come away, my sable sons & daughters
             Your galling chains
             Now rend in twain
             And come, come away.
         Here in my province still is room,
         And I will give you if you come
         A long, free, and happy home.
             O come! come away!

SLAVES.
             The bloodhounds (our guards)
             Surround our whole plantation;
             The patrols too
             Will us persue,
             We can't come away.
         Also our master and their wives
         Sleep on their swords and Boweknives,
         And swear they will take our lives;
             We can't come away.

QUEEN.
O come! come away, my sable sons & daughters
             Fear not those hounds
             Nor master's frowns,
             But come! come away!
         While dogs and masters are asleep,
         Then slily from your cabins creep,
         And no more in slavery weep:
             O come! come away!

SLAVES.
             The journey is long,
             And great the undertaking:
             We'll have to go
             Through frost and snow;
             We can't come away.
         The cane brake and the cotton field
         Must be our shelter and our shield,
         And wild beasts are there concealed;
             We can't come away.

QUEEN.
O come! come away, my sable sons & daughters
             Dry up your tears
             Dismiss your fears
             And come! come away.
         The Lord will take you by the hand,
         And lead you through the forest land;
         The beasts are at his command;
             O come! come away!

SLAVES.
Our masters we fear will blight our undertaking
             Our very eyes
             They'll advertise--
             We can't come away.
         The northern states though free by name
         Have negro dogsin every range
         Who linger there for pocket change;
             We can't come away.

QUEEN.
O come! come away, why will you longer tarry?
             The Lord will stand
             At your right hand
             O come, come away!
         You'll meet with many a northern friend
         Who will his best endeavors lend
         To speed you onto freedom's land;
             O come! come away!

SLAVES.
O! mother Victoria should we be overtaken;
             Our grief untold
             Will be ten fold;
             We can't come away.
         They'll either hang us on a tree
         Or sell us down to Tennessee
         Into endless slavery;
             We can't come away.

QUEEN.
O come, come away! I cannot tease you longer;
             You need not fear
             John Bull is here--
             O come, come away!
         The lion's paw shall guard thy head,
         His *shaggy
mane shall be thy bed,
         And none upon thy rights shall tread,
             O come, come away!

SLAVES' RESPONSE.
         The lion's paw shall guard our heads!
         His shaggy mane shall be our beds!
         And none upon our rights shall tread!
         We'll all come away!

         *The British government.

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Away to Canada
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