Black Lives Matter (Slavery and Brutality)

A captive of the Edo clan, I was enslaved at the age of 10 –
Held in the barracoon, that filthy holding pen.
Setting sail from Benin Town in the Liverpool ship The Brookes
Crewed by slavers, villains, the worst of violent crooks;
Chained within the hold, treated worse than cattle in a pen,
We sailed the Middle Passage, a cargo of 400 – mostly men.

For 8 weeks we suffered the galling of the chains
A meagre diet of beans and corn, with water from the rains.
Pestilence, beatings – furious corporal punishment was applied –
Many died, thrown o’er the side, or committed suicide.
My destination in the end was to be the Carolinas –
Slaving in the fields for plantation owners and refiners.

Slavery and brutality…. slavery and brutality….
I died in Amerika…. and America died in me….

With Amos Towns I ran away, and found the Freedom Train,
Two of us on the run fleeing from treatment inhumane.
A Quaker man guided us, our ‘conductor’ that first night,
Travelling 15 miles ‘til dawn’s first warming light.
Left us then to hide away, concealed within a church’s drain,
Waiting for the night to come to be guided on our way again.

Human cargo on the Gospel Train, taking us to the Promised Land,
Following the Big Dipper north, with a conductor’s helping hand –
A hidden trail of guides and friends to help the runaway
Make it to the Territories where slavery was done away.
We crossed the line at Amherstburg and I ceased to be a slave….
All thanks to the folks of the Underground Railway.

Slavery and brutality…. slavery and brutality….
I died in Amerika…. and America died in me….

I enlisted with the Union in the fight against slavery
Fighting those southern rebels who would not set us free.
I fought at Gettysburg, took Atlanta in 64,
Then, in the 1st World War, I went and fought some more:
Wilson wanted the world “Made safe for democracy”
So I enlisted in the ranks – despite the hypocrisy!

If those Europeans could be free –

Then what about blacks like me?!
In the 2nd World War I fought again, by air and land and sea;
Five years later I was in Korea, another war for Liberty(?).
Then Vietnam…. where I died a little more….
Thousands sent home in wooden boxes (my sacrifice in all these bloody wars).

Slavery and brutality…. slavery and brutality….
I died in Amerika…. and America died in me….

I walked the Alabama road – Selma to Montgomery –
Marching in a sea of hate, defying Wallace’s bigotry.
54 miles to the end of the line, racists looking for a fight.
Dr King was the anointed one – marching forward for what was right –
Inspiring with rousing oratory, campaigning for us to be free;
Told the world he ‘had a dream’…. but it was to end so tragically.

In ‘68 he ‘went to the mountaintop’, and within a day his dream was done –
Shot dead by James Earl Ray with a 2nd hand Remington.
Bob Dylan wrote ‘we shall overcome’ and Joan sang it to the crowd,
But times don’t change, nothing’s new – I’m black and I’m still proud.
But cops kill my kids and lock ‘em up …. ask Michael or Freddie Gray!
They’re dead – Black Lives Matter…. it doesn’t matter what they say.

Slavery and brutality…. slavery and brutality….
I died in Amerika…. and America died in me….