Skip to main content
Humanities LibreTexts

4.14.2: “The Farewell” (1838)

  • Page ID
    63574
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    Of A Virginia Slave Mother To Her Daughters Sold Into Southern Bondage

    Gone, gone,—sold and gone
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
    Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings
    Where the noisome insect stings
    Where the fever demon strews
    Poison with the falling dews
    Where the sickly sunbeams glare
    Through the hot and misty air;
    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
    From Virginia’s hills and waters;
    Woe is me, my stolen daughters!

    Gone, gone,—sold and gone
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone
    There no mother’s eye is near them,
    There no mother’s ear can hear them;
    Never, when the torturing lash
    Seams their back with many a gash
    Shall a mother’s kindness bless them
    Or a mother’s arms caress them.
    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
    From Virginia’s hills and waters;
    Woe is me, my stolen daughters!

    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
    Oh, when weary, sad, and slow,
    From the fields at night they go
    Faint with toil, and racked with pain
    To their cheerless homes again,
    There no brother’s voice shall greet them
    There no father’s welcome meet them.
    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
    From Virginia’s hills and waters;
    Woe is me, my stolen daughters!

    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone
    From the tree whose shadow lay
    On their childhood’s place of play;
    From the cool sprmg where they drank;
    Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank;
    From the solemn house of prayer,
    And the holy counsels there;
    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
    From Virginia’s hills and waters;
    Woe is me, my stolen daughters!

    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
    Toiling through the weary day,
    And at night the spoiler’s prey.
    Oh, that they had earlier died,
    Sleeping calmly, side by side,
    Where the tyrant’s power is o’er
    And the fetter galls no more!
    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
    From Virginia’s hills and waters
    Woe is me, my stolen daughters!

    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone;
    By the holy love He beareth;
    By the bruised reed He spareth;
    Oh, may He, to whom alone
    All their cruel wrongs are known,
    Still their hope and refuge prove,
    With a more than mother’s love.
    Gone, gone,—sold and gone,
    To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
    From Virginia’s hills and waters;
    Woe is me, my stolen daughters!


    4.14.2: “The Farewell” (1838) is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

    • Was this article helpful?