ALWAYS WORTH A SLAVE'S PURCHASE PRICE

(Poem 17 of 365)

ALWAYS WORTH A SLAVE’S PURCHASE PRICE

(Fayetteville, N.C -- 1814)

Fresh off the rat infested horror of the slave ship docked at Southport...

Boated up the Cape Fear River to Fayetteville’s humid vicious import!

There are terrors that be hidden in this new land,

The calls of strange beasts from the forests, just out of hand...

But nothing more horrible than the evil fate of a snatched slave of export!

Few of your black brethren from villages different, and languages odd, too...

Ever spoke on that long death journey in fear of the lash from the ship’s crew!

It was a relief to first step out into the stark N.C. light,

After suffering from the lengthly light deprived plight...

Of being stacked like fish on top of rotting bodies turned putrid blue.

Can anything else be worse than the hell trip from Africa to places dire?

Can anything else be worse than losing your family to violence, rape and fire?

They made you watch as they raped your wife to put you in your place!

They made you watch as they slit her throat and smiled in your face.

Can anything be worse than the horror of watching your six children expire?

And here you are... kept alive because of your size and strength and organ.

And you are now standing in the stable to be auctioned like a beast of burden.

It is obvious that you are to be sold as breeding stock...

To produce the next generation of strong slaves to break the heavy rock!

Your turn is next as you are marched to the pagoda... for you, no bargain!

You are stripped naked as you are displayed like an Ox, a chicken and eggs!

They examine your teeth, your chest, your arms... and that between your legs.

You watch the men recoil as you are grabbed there...

And you watch the women recoil in intrigue as they stare!

$380.00 buys a buck slave forced into sex slavery for children... for the dregs!

You are just another human animal to be spoken of during dark meetings.

You work their fields, you give them child labor and you take the beatings.

And it is no perk to your private part and your mind...

When the Master’s mistress forces you to take her reclined...

Forcing you into a game of death if the Master discovers his wife’s dealings.

How did this tale of slavery past eventually come to be ended?

To heaven, or hell, will his captors eventually force him unbended!

Is the plight of his kind to be used and abused forever?

Will the Negro ever become more than white man’s slavery endeavor?

200 years later... 2014... and guess at the answer for the still offended!

RLJ