Quote#Freedom
Forced from home and all its pleasures
Quote byWilliam Cowper · 1731–1800
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Negro's Complaint (1788), Lines 1-8.
English (original)
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 slave they have enrolled me, Minds are never to be sold.
— William Cowper
More from William Cowper
But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.
Man disobeys, and deity disowns me.
Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was.
Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair.
Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.
Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets.