I once was a free man or shall I say I was free,
My slave buddies I had the slave master through misery.
I had enough of this working from dusk to dawn,
My blood runs reds as the whips are drawn.
Am I the worst slave to be worked upon?
My back takes the lashes as they begin.
Just work you Negroes!
Ain’t nobody your heroes!
Killing me as I’m yawning,
Working from dusk till dawning.
Young as I am the worst one,
All of my misery just has begun.
I am Tobias Hutchins a slave,
I’ll be freer one day or in a grave.
Slowly and on a hot summer’s eve,
My freedom is what I escape to believe.
How aren’t you crackin’ yet?
Don’t make me get the whip.
Work! Work! Work!
Or I’ll leave y’all broke.
Negroes around here ain’t besties,
We ain’t gotta be the best buddies.
What a lovely day isn’t Sampson?
I can’t believe I am put up for ransom.
Just as I planned an escape,
I have to escape like it’s my fate.
Like fuck that or fuck this!
Masters be cray swinging whips.
Haven’t I earned a break or some water?
I am quite parched from working harder.
Confusing I can’t drink?
What the fuck do I think?
Jumping from the field to field,
Only blood will be drawn indeed.
Can’t have the running water so crystal-like,
Just don’t you even dare to even come to fight?
It’s never too late in my book,
I would truly escape or be a crook
I am no crook,
I am never looked.
How will I escape this eternal hell?
My freedom will be explainable can’t ya tell?
Over yonder and to an ibis,
I will be freer than with this.
Claiming my sweet freedom I oversaw,
Man, I can’t believe I am this far.
Negroes I believe in being free,
I am the one to make true history.
I made it throughout Alabama and came to Baltimore,
I am a free man! I am a free man! I say this till I’m sore.
Maryland is my new hometown,
I can even kiss this dirty ground.
Mistakes I’ve made,
Would put me in a grave.
I started to find a missus,
I say “will you marry justice?”
Maybe I am a free man but I am never a slave again,
An escape to believe that I am and this is what I can.
Sweet freedom! I am a freed man!
Missus, will you marry me just as I am?
Poetry
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