Naked I came upon this land
Bearing chains of another man.
Stripped from the warmth
Of my mother’s bosom
In Kush cradles of civilization
Shackled in a ship through the Transatlantic
Sold on the stocks of the plantation.
I was brought to this place
That was not yet a nation.
And I was told that slave was my only station
Beneath a man, below a beast,
A cruel convenience for a system that needed me.
So, I worked the land, I sowed the soil,
I built the cities. I toiled and toiled.
My blood and my sweat brought this nation to be
The home of the brave and the land of the free
But that freedom somehow excluded me
For over four centuries.
So I fought and I struggled for four hundred years
Generations and generations of blood sweat and tears.
I have never stopped struggling to this day
And I know the price that my struggles have paid
So when I celebrate the land of the free
I take it to be a celebration of me
The one who caused this great nation to be.
ReplyForward