African American Poetry (1870-1928): A Digital Anthology

Frances E.W. Harper, "Fifteenth Amendment" (1871)

Editor's Note: The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed Black men the right to vote. It was ratified on February 3, 1870. Black women would not be guaranteed the right to vote until the passage of the 19th Amendment (in August 1920). 

Second note: in the following poem, Harper uses the word "chrism." "Chrism" is a consecrated oil used in Baptism rites in some Christian traditions. 

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

BENEATH the burden of our joy
Tremble, O wires, from East to West!
Fashion with words your tongues of fire,
To tell the nation's high behest.

Outstrip the winds, and leave behind
The murmur of the restless waves;
Nor tarry with your glorious news,
Amid the ocean's coral caves.

Ring out! ring out! your sweetest chimes,
Ye bells, that call to prayer;
Let every heart with gladness thrill,
And songs of joyful triumph raise.

Shake off the dust, rising race!
Crowned as a brother and a man;
Justice to-day asserts her claim,
And from thy brow fades out the ban.

With freedom's chrism upon thy head,
Her precious ensign in thy hand,
Go place thy once despised name
Amid the noblest of the land.

O ransomed race! give God the praise,
Who led thee through a crimson sea,
And ’mid the storm of fire and blood,
Turned out the war-cloud's light to thee.


Published in Frances E.W. Harper's Poems, 1871

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