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From “Twasinta’s Seminoles” (Canto II, LXIX)

Albery Allson Whitman

1851 –

1901

Man will hold some religion, most believe,
Mainly to hush the soul’s rebuke of wrong;
They would their very conscious selves deceive,
By hearing God’s will in an unknown tongue,
And recitals not understood and long.
Hence, from the conscience, they with ease appeal
To crime's high court, the mysteries among.
What then are human hearts?—earth’s woe or weal
When man wrongs man, inspired divinely not to feel

From Twasinta's Seminoles; or, Rape of Florida (Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1885) by Albery A. Whitman. This poem is in the public domain.

Albery A. Whitman — From the frontispiece of “Twasinta’s Seminoles”

Albery Allson Whitman was born into slavery on May 30, 1851, on a farm near Munfordville, Kentucky, in Hart County, what Whitman called “the Green River country.” He had at least one sibling, a sister. His mother died in 1862, and his father died soon after emancipation, leaving Whitman an orphan at age twelve. He remained on the farm where he was born and continued to labor there until he moved, first to Louisville, Kentucky, then to Cincinnati. He later relocated to Troy, Ohio, where he worked and, for five months, attended grammar school.

About Albery Allson Whitman

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From “Twasinta’s Seminoles” (Canto III, LII)

He could not be enslaved—would not enslave
The meanest exile that his friendship sued,
Brave for himself, defending others brave,—
The matchless hero of his time he stood,
His noble heart with freedom’s love imbued,
The strong apostle of Humanity!
’Mid forests wild and habitations rude,
He made his bed of glory by the sea;
The friend of Florida and man, there let him be!

Albery Allson Whitman

1885

From “Twasinta’s Seminoles” (Canto III, LI)

And tho’ ’tis sad, in truth it must be said,
They died for Freedom and for slavery too!
How noble and ignoble are our dead,
How recreant to right, and yet how true!
But o’er a century’s historic view,
The valiant Seminole we proudly see;
He died for Freedom; and the trembling few
Who fled to Florida his wards to be,
He elevated into freemen’s dignity!

Albery Allson Whitman

1885

From “Twasinta’s Seminoles” (Canto III, XXXV)

Hark! in the troubled West what means this roar?
Like forests in a storm’s tremendous glee,
Or like the waves on dread Atlantic’s shore,
It rolls and breaks around Mickanopy!
Oh! what hath roused this angry human sea?
Why howls the waste in such unwonted throes?
What rends the bosom of tranquillity?
The loud, resistless onset of fierce foes,
Startles a peaceful land and breaks its deep repose!

Albery Allson Whitman

1885