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While they claimed to have removed, the shackles and chains; they simply ignored the scarring, which will always remain
What they gave and took away then, is really still unknown; but today I know, I can feel your pain, more than my own
What generation of slave, were you brought to be; that will tell us the true price you paid, for other’s right to be free
Were you first generation, born with freedom and in royalty; but sold into this life by those, who to you had no real loyalty
Once Kings, queens, princes and princesses in your native land; brought here only to suffer, under a common man’s hand
You were stripped of all your glory and constantly degraded; they subdued your heritage and your offspring were traded
They tried to erase the memory, of your ancestral homeland; for this they cracked the whip and your bodies they did brand
We seem to have lost the memory, of what you all went through; is that the reason why, we only do what little we do
The constitution says we have certain rights and are all created equal; did slavery really end, or were you just living a sequel
We may never understand what it meant to be totally enslaved; because you had to take some of it, with you to your grave
You sang those old Negro spirituals, as if you didn’t mind; but oh how you long for life, across about the Mason Dixie Line
Some called slavery a necessary evil and others a positive good; were they this simple or were they simply misunderstood
They simply called it, your emancipation proclamation; did it really free slaves, or serve to split, an already divided nation
For some Lincoln’s decree, had to it a very nice ring; but it was less about freeing slaves and more about, many other things
As you toiled in the fields, for their economic progress; you were subject to human disgrace, while being socially oppressed
You were beat down and told that you were someone’s property; and then lied to about what it meant and how to be free
How do you walk out of slavery, into a freedom so undefined; more than scars remain, also the invisible chains that bind
They claimed a great victory, saying it was won just for you; if this was such a great victory, why didn’t a celebration ensue
There were no ceremonies conducted or ticker tape parades; you were taken from slavery to share cropper, oh what a trade
They gave you forty acres and a mule, is what I have been told; the forty acres were rented and mule was older than old
The old mule soon died and the harvest went away; and you were eventually left with a bill that you had no money to pay
You continued to labor, thinking that you’re paying for the land; instead you’re being more enslaved, to the very same man
For many long years now we’ve waited with hopeful anticipation; the payment on an outstanding debt, yes your reparations
It’s quite obvious that your hard work and labor has just gone ignored; it must have been written off, as free room and board
There’s no moral to the story or lesson to be learned; you were viciously beaten, chased by dogs and had your bodies burned
Modern slavery is one that’s so very easy to fight; the bondage is the shackling of our minds and with ourselves’ is the fight
I’ve read about racism and slavery and the ills they have sown; it’s through this that I can feel your pain, more than my own
If you experience slavery today; then for you slavery has grown; you don’t need any help, you can abolish it on your own
