Slaves are packed side by side
Packed like sardines in a can
Herded like cattle, in the name of capitalism
Conditioned and trained to be a nigger
Upon the back they felt the lash
Nine strands of whip across the skin
Blood oozed from wounds like tree sap
You’d hear them cry out from pain
Treated as animals they were;
Not as men, women or children
Treated like livestock, if they talked
They’d get a good flogging
Please master!
Have mercy
Strike after strike
Giving this man a whipping
This man’s crime was education
A slave that could write and read
Uncommon with someone of his creed
A skill acquired in Saratoga
You were given a name
Your name is Platt!
My name is Solomon!
Lash after lash until submission
To live was a divine reward
Submit to white men’s villainy
Do and say as little possible
That was the way to keep your life
Belittled to no end
Humiliated, beaten, whipped
Kicked, raped, impregnated
Crimes against humanity
Those were defined as sanity
Red faced plantation owners
Get down on the floor nigger!
Sing for me, dance for me
And now share my bed with me
They weren’t people anymore
Given a new name
Prohibited from marriage
And having a family
Those who had families were split
All in the name of profit and money
Then you’d remember your feet
Shackled with chains
Prisoners of the English, The Portuguese
The French, the Americans
And even the Dutch and Spanish
The constant jingling on your feet
A reminder of loves labours lost
You’re lack of individuality
Disallowed from being human
No love, anger or contempt
You were someone’s property
A commodity item and treated as such
You must accept that this is your life
You will live and die a slave
The labourers’ condition is wrong.
A man does how he pleases with his property.
You say that with pride.
I say it as fact.
The infamous, brutal group, The Ku Klux Klan
Committed atrocities in the name of Uncle Sam
On horseback through the south did they lynch blacks
And nigger lovers, stripped and clipped, now in body sacks
Slavery, part of everyone’s history
A taboo topic we flee from
Considered controversial
How very Christian of you
