But other circumstances occurred to keep up a hatred of the trade among
the people in this interval, which, trivial as they were, ought not to
be forgotten. The amiable poet Cowper had frequently made the Slave
Trade the subject of his contemplation. He had already severely
condemned it in his valuable poem _The Task_. But now he had written
three little fugitive pieces upon it. Of these, the most impressive was
that which he called _The Negro's Complaint_, and of which the following
is a copy:--
Forced from home and all its pleasures,
Afric's coast I left forlorn,
To increase a stranger's treasures,
O'er the raging billows borne;
Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;
But, though theirs they have enroll'd me,
Minds are never to be sold.
Still in thought as free as ever,
What are England's rights, I ask,
Me from my delights to sever,
Me to torture, me to task?
Fleecy locks and black complexion
Cannot forfeit Nature's claim;
Skins may differ, but affection
Dwells in black and white the same.
Why did all-creating Nature
Make the plant, for which we toil?
Sighs must fan it, tears must water,
Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
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