Bury Me in a Free Land + 

Make me a grave where’er you will, + 

In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill, + 

Make it among earth’s humblest graves, + 

But not in a land where men are slaves. + 

I could not rest if around my grave + 

I heard the steps of a trembling slave: + 

His shadow above my silent tomb + 

Would make it a place of fearful gloom. + 

I could not rest if I heard the tread + 

Of a coffle gang to the shambles led, + 

And the mother’s shriek of wild despair + 

Rise like a curse on the trembling air. + 

I could not sleep if I saw the lash + 

Drinking her blood at each fearful gash, + 

And I saw her babes torn from her breast, + 

Like trembling doves from their parent nest. + 

I’d shudder and start if I heard the bay + 

Of bloodhounds seizing their human prey, + 

And I heard the captive plead in vain + 

As they bound afresh his galling chain. + 

If I saw young girls from their mothers’ arms + 

Bartered and sold for their youthful charms, + 

My eye would flash with a mournful flame, + 

My death-paled cheek grow red with shame. + 

I would sleep, dear friends, where bloated might + 

Can rob no man of his dearest right; + 

My rest shall be calm in any grave + 

Where none can call his brother slave. + 

I ask no monument, proud and high, + 

To arrest the gaze of the passers by; + 

All that my yearning spirit craves, + 

Is bury me not in a land of slaves. + 