





































Introduction

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 “The Witnesses”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
 “The Flower of Liberty”

John Pierpont
 “The Fugitive Slave’s Apostrophe to the North Star”
 “The Slaveholder’s Address to the North Star”

William Gilmore Simms
 “Billows”
 “Yes, Lone Were My Bosom”

Conclusion

Works Cited

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The Opposing Viewpoints of Slavery 
in Nineteenth-Century
American Poetry: An Anthology

Madison Yeary, Indiana University

Key Words:
Freedom, Slavery, 
Abolition, Master, 
Faith 

Abstract:
This anthology delves into a critical time period in American history, 
illustrates various arguments for and against slavery in the nineteenth 
century, and showcases some of the most powerful and insightful 
poems of the era. 

36

Digital Literature Review, vol. 2 (2015). © Ball State University. All Rights Reserved.
Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu. 

Table of Contents



Introduction
On April 12, 1861, America entered what would become the deadliest war in its recorded history. 

Fought only on American soil, the Civil War nearly split the once “United” States and caused approxi-
mately six hundred twenty-five thousand casualties. Due to such political and environmental polarities 
between the quickly industrializing North and the slave owning agricultural South, tensions quickly 
rose. In 1860, just after the election of abolitionist president Abraham Lincoln, the rebel states began 
their secession. As the war continued and more lives were lost, an exponential increase of cultural 
figures, such as writers and professors, immersed themselves in politics and avidly supported their side, 
resulting in the rise of influential literature. Long after the abolishment of slavery and the end of the war 
on April 9, 1865, books and poems were still published on the opinions prompting the bloodshed. The 
contradictory attitudes between the loyal North and rebel South, specifically concerning the issue of 
slavery, ineludibly manifested themselves through nineteenth-century American poetry.

This anthology contains six annotated poems exemplifying specific differences between the North-
ern and Southern stance on slavery. Arranged according to their respective views regarding the political 
policy of slavery, the first three pieces include only antislavery poems written by northern abolitionists. 
These poems particularly reflect the role played by religion and spiritualism in the abolitionist stance 
against slavery.  In contrast, the latter half of the anthology’s poems demonstrates the South’s overpow-
ering ego and sense of entitlement, which resulted in their full support for the use of slaves.  

The first poem in this anthology – “The Witnesses” – was written by Fireside Poet Henry Wad-
sworth Longfellow in 1842. This piece depicts the inhumanity of the pre-war slave trade by divulging 
the harsh reality of slavery’s oppression, which resulted in the loss of so many lives.

Another Fireside Poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. in 1861, wrote the anthology’s next poem, 
titled “The Flower of Liberty”. This poem epitomizes the symbolic patriotism of the American 
Flag, which the Northern Soldiers used for motivation to keep fighting for their cause in such a 
violent and austere civil war. 

“The last two anti-slavery poems in this anthology that symbolize the Northern cause were both 
written by John Pierpont in 1839: the first is titled “The Fugitive Slave’s Apostrophe To The North 
Star” and the second “The Slaveholder’s Address To The North Star.” The first is written from the point 
of view of a runaway slave and depicts his journey strictly at night, guided by the light of the North 
Star on the Underground Railroad. Pierpont wrote the second from the point of view of a harsh and 
ignorant slave owner.  In this poem, a slave owner mocks the same North Star followed so desperately 
by the fugitive slave. Opening with the lines “Star of the North, thou art not bigger // Than is the dia-
mond in my ring;” Pierpont flawlessly exemplifies the arrogance held by many southern slave owners. 
The people south of the Dixie-line defended their use of slaves by claiming that African-Americans 
were nothing more than mere savages who bettered their lives when becoming slaves because it gave 
them a purpose for living. In the anthology, then, Pierpont’s second poem acts as a bridge into the 
second section, which represents actual pro-slavery poetry.”

Southern historian and pro-slavery advocate William Gilmore Simms wrote “Billows,” the 
first poem included in the set of pro-slavery pieces, in 1832. This piece claims with the same 
unashamed pride as the others that the masters of slaves in the South deserved their slaves just 
because of the color of their skin. 

The anthology’s sixth and final poem, titled “Yes, Lone Were My Bosom,” was published in 
1853 by the same author as the preceding poem – William Gilmore Simms. Yet again written 
from the viewpoint of a Southern slaveholder, this poem egotistically expresses Simms’s rationale 
of and justification for slavery as a positive practice.

37 Yeary



As clearly seen in the poetry of the time, there were dramatic differences between the nature and 
politics of a young, split America. The loyalist North supported the abolition of slavery, while the rebel 
South fought till its death in an attempt to keep it. Just four short years, from 1861-1865, caused both 
the history and literature of the United States to be changed indefinitely.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Merely three years after his birth in Portland, Maine on February 7, 1807, legendary poet Hen-

ry Wadsworth Longfellow began his formal education comparatively and notably young. Never-
theless, because of his early start, Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College by the impressive age 
of fifteen and subsequently taught modern languages at Harvard. Distinguished by his under-
standing that “what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen” (Wagenknect, 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), Longfellow’s poetry revolutionized American culture and thrust 
him into one of the five figurehead positions of the renowned Fireside Poets. Acclaimed pieces 
such as “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “Songs of Hiawatha” inspired writers and composers alike; his 
poetry flourished and could be heard everywhere from parlors to civic ceremonies, and any-
where in between. However, among his life’s praise and prestige came no shortage of undeserved 
anguish and despair. In his poem “Resignation,” Longfellow recounts the feelings and ideals that 
held him together through those “severe afflictions” caused by the death of his daughter Fanny in 
1848. Shortly after Fanny’s death, Longfellow’s wife, Frances, was sealing an envelope with hot 
wax when her dress caught fire.  Although Longfellow himself eventually snuffed it out, severe 
burns had already covered her body and resulted in her death on the morning of July 10, 1861. 
During his courtship of Frances, however, Longfellow publicly solidified himself as an abolitionist 
when his collection, Poems on Slavery, was published in 1842. His poem, “The Witnesses,” found 
in this collection, describes the undeniable and horrific consequences of the American slave 
trade.

“The Witnesses”
In Ocean’s wide domains, 
     Half buried in the sands, 
Lie skeletons in chains,
     With shackled feet and hands. 

Beyond the fall of dews,
     Deeper than plummet lies, 
Float ships, with all their crews,
     No more to sink nor rise.

There the black Slave-ship swims,
     Freighted with human forms, 
Whose fettered, fleshless limbs 
     Are not the sport of storms.

These are the bones of the Slaves;
     They gleam from the abyss; 
They cry, from yawning waves, 

38 Yeary



     “We are the Witnesses!”

Within Earth’s wide domains
     Are markets for men’s lives; 
Their necks are galled with chains,
     Their wrists are cramped with gyves. 1

Dead bodies, that the kite
     In deserts make its prey; 
Murders, that with affright
     Scare school-boys from their play! 

All evil thoughts and deeds;
     Anger, and lust, and pride; 
The foulest, rankest weeds,
     That choke Life’s groaning tide! 

These are the woes of the Slaves;
     They glare from the abyss;
They cry, from unknown graves,
     “We are the Witnesses!”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894)
Famous for substantially more than coining the term “anesthesia,” Fireside Poet Oliver Wen-

dell Holmes, Sr. was also an American professor, physician, writer, and justice for the American 
Supreme Court. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 29, 1809, where he 
remained until 1830. While living in Cambridge, Holmes attended Harvard College, where 
he graduated with a degree in classical languages and literature. Shortly following graduation, 
Holmes decided to continue his Harvard education and enrolled at Dane Law School in the fall 
1829. After only one year, however, Holmes left his alma mater in order to study medicine and 
concentrate on writing. Reflecting on this decision, Holmes claimed, “The labor which produc-
es an insignificant poem would be enough to master a solid chapter of law” (European Grad-
uate School, “Oliver Wendell Holmes”).  In 1836 Holmes earned his M.D. from Harvard with 
his dissertation on acute pericarditis. However, despite each of Holmes’ varying educational 
interests, his passion for writing never faded. Even at his busiest, Holmes somehow found time 
to write. The same year he earned his M.D., he also published his first collection of pieces, 
which he titled Poems. His popularity quickly grew, and as a result, people began asking him to 
write poems for specific occasions or events. As well as poems of tribute, Holmes also notori-
ously wrote poems about his observations of the world around him. Since he lived during the 
time of slavery and the Civil War, Holmes witnessed first hand slavery’s many evils and the war 
it caused. These troubling observations led Holmes to side with the Northern cause as an abo-
litionist. Consequently, his strong political stances became evident through his writing. One of 

39

1 A “gyve” is a fetter or shackle.

Yeary



these poems, “The Flower of Liberty,” describes the loyal and necessary patriotism found in the 
American flag. To him, the flag represented all the lives of the American people who sacrificed 
their lives for freedom, and this freedom was meant for everyone, even slaves. 

“The Flower of Liberty”
WHAT flower is this that greets the morn, 
Its hues from Heaven so freshly born? 
With burning star and flaming band
It kindles all the sunset land:
Oh tell us what its name may be,--
 Is this the Flower of Liberty?

 It is the banner of the free, 
 The starry Flower of Liberty!

In savage Nature’s far abode
Its tender seed our fathers sowed;
The storm-winds rocked its swelling bud,
Its opening leaves were streaked with blood, 
Till lo! earth’s tyrants shook to see
The full-blown Flower of Liberty!

 Then hail the banner of the free,
 The starry Flower of Liberty!

Behold its streaming rays unite,
One mingling flood of braided light,--
The red that fires the Southern rose,
With spotless white from Northern snows,
And, spangled o’er its azure, see
The sister Stars of Liberty!

 Then hail the banner of the free, 
 The starry Flower of Liberty!

The blades of heroes fence it round, 
Where’er it springs is holy ground;
From tower and dome its glories spread;
It waves where lonely sentries tread; 
It makes the land as ocean free,
And plants an empire on the sea!

 Then hail the banner of the free,
 The starry Flower of Liberty!

40 Yeary



Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom’s flower, 
Shall ever float on dome and tower,
To all their heavenly colors true,
In blackening frost or crimson dew,--
And God love us as we love thee, 
Thrice holy Flower of Liberty!

 Then hail the banner of the free,
 The starry FLOWER OF LIBERTY

John Pierpont (1785-1866)
Educator, attorney, minister, politician, and poet, John Pierpont is famous for boldly expressing 

his abolitionist beliefs through his work.  Born into an illustrious family on April 6, 1785, in Litch-
field, Connecticut, Pierpont was destined for a life of achievements. Among the first of these famous 
achievements was the success gained from his book of poetry, Airs of Palestine, published in 1816. 
Soon after its publication and his resulting new found literary acclaim, Pierpont wrote several school 
readers, such as The American First Class Book, and published multiple pieces of moral interest. 
Whilst developing his respected authorial standing, he simultaneously earned esteem as a Unitarian 
pastor for Hollis Street Church in Boston and again as a seventy-six year old chaplain of the 22nd 
Massachusetts Infantry. Despite the frequent shifts in career, Pierpont held firm to his spiritual con-
victions and repeatedly shared his anti-slavery ideals, even when they were not well received. Recall-
ing the uproar caused by Pierpont’s Anti-Slavery Poems published in 1843, the author says: “Though 
some of my friends may grieve, and wish that I had been more prudent than to write the pieces that 
touch thus upon Human Liberty, and upon the outrageous wrongs that, in these days and in this our 
land, it has suffered, their grandchildren will thank me, and may be freer men for them” (Antislavery 
Literature Project). Though written in 1839, his poem titled “The Fugitive Slave’s Apostrophe To 
The North Star” is exactly the type of ‘piece’ his ‘friends [did] grieve.’ Written from a slave’s point of 
view, Pierpont describes the hope placed in the God who created the star “over Bethlehem’s man-
ger” and their pleas for delivery and his guidance. Soon after finishing this poem, Pierpont wrote its 
similarly titled antithesis “Slaveholder’s Address To The North Star.” Here, he describes the prideful 
thoughts and rationale of many slave owners, ultimately portraying them simply as ignorant fools.

“The Fugitive Slave’s Apostrophe To The North Star”
STAR of the North!2  though night winds drift
     The fleecy drapery of the sky
Between thy lamp and me, I lift,
     Yea, lift with hope, my sleepless eye
To the blue heights wherein thou dwellest, 
And of a land of freedom tellest.

41

2 “The Star of the North” is referring to the star in Matthew 2 of the Christian Bible, which led the wise men to Jesus.
3 This line parallels the slaves’ secret Underground Railroad to the wise men’s attempt at staying hidden by 
traveling only at night. 

Yeary



Star of the North! while blazing day 
     Pours round me its full tide of light, 
And hides thy pale but faithful ray,
     I, too, lie hid, and long for night:3 
For night;—I dare not walk at noon,
Nor dare I trust the faithless moon,—

Nor faithless man, whose burning lust
     For gold hath riveted my chain; 
Nor other leader can I trust,
     But thee, of even the starry train; 
For, all the host around thee burning,
Like faithless man, keep turning, turning.

I may not follow where they go: 
     Star of the North, I look to thee 
While on I press; for well I know
     Thy light and truth shall set me free;— 
Thy light, that no poor slave deceiveth; 
Thy truth, that all my soul believeth.

They of the East beheld the star
     That over Bethlehem’s manager glowed; 
With joy they hailed it from afar,
     And followed where it marked the road, 
Till, where its rays directly fell,
They found the Hope of Israel.4

Wise were the men who followed thus 
     The star that sets man free from sin! 
Star of the North! thou art to us,—
     Who’re slaves because we wear a skin 
Dark as is night’s protecting wing,— 
Thou art to us a holy thing.

And we are wise to follow thee! 
     I trust thy steady light alone:
Star of the North! thou seem’st to me 
     To burn before the Almighty’s throne, 
To guide me, through these forests dim
And vast, to liberty and HIM.

Thy beam is on the glassy breast

42

4 The “Hope of Israel” refers to God’s promise to the Israelites to deliver them from Egyptian enslavement in 
Exodus 6:6.

Yeary



     Of the still spring, upon whose brink
I lay my weary limbs to rest,
     And bow my parching lips to drink.
Guide of the friendless negro’s way,
I bless thee for this quiet ray!

In the dark top of southern pines
     I nestled, when the driver’s horn 
Called to the field, in lengthening lines, 
     My fellows at the break of morn.
And there I lay, till thy sweet face
Looked in upon “my hiding-place.”

The tangled cane-brake,—where I crept
     For shelter from the heat of noon, 
And where, while others toiled, I slept 
     Till wakened by the rising moon,—
As its stalks felt the night wind free, 
Gave me to catch a glimpse of thee.

Star of the North! in bright array
     The constellations round thee sweep, 
Each holding on its nightly way, 
     Rising, or sinking in the deep,
And, as it hangs in mid-heaven flaming,
The homage of some nation claiming.

This nation to the Eagle cowers; 
     Fit ensign! she’s a bird of spoil;
Like worships like! for each devours
     The earnings of another’s toil.
I ’ve felt her talons and her beak, 
And now the gentler Lion seek.

The Lion at the Virgin’s feet 
     Crouches, and lays his mighty paw 
Into her lap!—an emblem meet
     Of England’s Queen and English law:—
Queen, that hath made her Islands free! 
Law, that holds out its shield to me!

Star of the North! upon that shield 
     Thou shinest!—O, forever shine! 

43 Yeary



The negro from the cotton-field
     Shall then beneath its orb recline, 
And feed the Lion couched before it, 
Nor heed the Eagle screaming o’er it!

“The Slaveholder’s Address To The North Star”
STAR of the North, thou art not bigger
     Than is the diamond in my ring;
Yet every black, star-gazing nigger 
     Stares at thee, as at some great thing! 
Yes, gazes at thee, till the lazy
And thankless rascal is half crazy.

Some Quaker scoundrel must have told ‘em
     That, if they take their flight toward thee, 
They’d get where ‘massa’ cannot hold ‘em; 
     And, therefore, to the North they flee. 
Fools! to be led off, where they can’t earn 
Their living, by thy lying lantern.

Thou’rt a cold water star, I reckon, 
     Although I’ve never seen thee, yet, 
When to the bath thy sisters beckon, 
     Get even thy golden sandals wet;
Nor in the wave have known thee dip, 
In our hot nights, thy finger’s tip.

If thou wouldst, nightly, leave the pole, 
     To enjoy a regular ablution
In the North Sea, or Symmes’s hole,5 
     Our ‘Patriarchal Institution,’
From which thou findest many a ransom,
Would, doubtless, give thee something handsome.

Although thou ‘rt a cold water star, 
     As I have said, I think, already, 
Thou ‘rt hailed, by many a tipsy tar,
     Who likes thee just because thou ‘rt steady, 
And hold’st the candle for the rover,
When he is more than ‘half seas over.’

44

5 Symmes’s hole was the hypothesis proposed by Edmond Halley that the earth was in a hollow shell.
6 In Genesis 5:32 of the Bible, Ham is described as the son of Noah, who was the man that built the ark.
7 Also a biblical reference to Genesis 1:28 where God commands Adam and Eve to “increase and multiply.”

Yeary



But, while Ham’s6 seed, our land to bless,
     ‘Increase and multiply’7 like rabbits, 
We like thee, Yankee Star, the less, 
     For thy bright eye, and steady habits. 
Pray waltz with Venus, star of love, 
Or take a bout with reeling Jove.

Thou art an abolition star,
     And to my wench wilt be of use, if her 
Dark eye should find thee, ere the car 
     Of our true old slave-catcher, ‘Lucifer, 
Star of the morning,’ upward rolls, 
And, with its light, puts out the pole’s.

On our field hands thou lookest, too — 
     A sort of nightly overseer—
Canst find no other work to do?
     I tell thee, thou’rt not wanted here; 
So, pray, shine only on the oceans,
Thou number one of ‘Northern notions.’

Yes, northern notions, — northern lights! 
     As hates the devil holy water,
So hate I all that Rogers writes,
     Or Weld, that married Grimkè’s daughter:— 
So hate I all these northern curses,
From Birney’s prose to Whittier’s verses.

‘Put out the light!’ exclaimed the Moor — 
     I think they call his name Othello — 
When opening his wife’s chamber door
     To cut her throat — the princely fellow!
Noblest of all the nigger nation! 
File leader in amalgamation!

‘Put out the light!’ and so say I.
     Could ‘I quench thee, thou flaming minister,’ 
No longer, in the northern sky,
     Should blaze thy beacon-fire so sinister. 
North Star, thy light’s unwelcome — very — 
We’ll vote thee ‘an incendiary.’

45 Yeary



And, to our ‘natural allies’ —
     Our veteran Kinderhook Invincibles, 
Who do our bidding, in the guise
     Of  ‘northern men, with southern principles, ‘— 
Men who have faces firm as dough,
And, as we set their noses, go —

To these, we’ll get some scribe to write, 
     And tell them not to let thee shine — 
Excepting of a cloudy night —
     Any where, south of Dixon’s line.
If, beyond that, thou shin’st, an inch
We’ll have thee up before Judge Lynch:8  —

And when, thou abolition star,
     Who preachest freedom, in all weathers, 
Thou hast got on a coat of tar,
     And, over that, a cloak of feathers, 
That thou art ‘fixed’ shall none deny, 
If there’s a fixed star in the sky.

William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870)
By the age of eight, renowned author and historian William Gilmore Simms had already written 

his first poem. Best known for his political writings and pro-slavery arguments, famous poet Edgar 
Allen Poe described Simms as “the best novelist, which this country has, on the whole, produced.” 
Born on April 17, 1806, in Charleston, South Carolina, Simms would grow up to be a prominent 
voice of antebellum Southern Literature. Although he dedicated most of his life to documenting 
the culture and history of his beloved South, at age eighteen Simms enrolled in law school.  After 
passing the bar exam in 1827, he began to practice in his hometown of Charleston. However, soon 
thereafter Simms realized the irritating and unavoidable facets of practicing law and consequently 
deserted his career to focus on both his love for literature and the southern half of the United States. 
Unsurprisingly, since those were his two greatest passions, nearly all of his writings have Southern 
influence or themes. His book The Sword and the Distaff is among his most famous pieces, and stems 
from his clear opposition to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s widespread antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cab-
in. In addition to his famous novels, however, Simms also published works of poetry. In his poem 
“Billows,” Simms briefly describes only part of his argument for slavery, which essentially stated that 
slaves happily and sometimes even willingly served their owners because of their newfound purpose 
for their otherwise useless lives. Simms also wrote the poem “Yes, Lone Where My Bosom,” which 
portrays a conversation between a Southerner doubting his faith and the God causing his doubt.

“Billows”
Gently, with sweet commotion, 

46

8 Lynching is the act of murdering someone, usually by hanging, which predominately happened to slaves and 
post-antebellum freed blacks.

Yeary



 Sweeping the shore,
Billows that break from ocean, 
 Rush to our feet;
Slaves that, with fond devotion, 
 Prone to adore,
Seek not to stint with measure
 Service that’s meet;--
Bearing their liquid treasure, 
 Flinging it round,
Shouting the while the pleasure
 True service knows,
Then as if bless’d with leisure, 
 Flung on the yellow ground 
Taking repose!

“Yes, Lone Were My Bosom”
Yes, lone were my bosom if liken’d to thine, 
And base were my soul if it knelt at thy shrine; 
And the heaven we worship were false if it be 
More true to the spoiler than thou wert to me.

If the hope that has cheer’d me through danger and death, 
Be as easily lost as its owner’s frail breath,
Then ‘twere meet that my heart in its conflict should fly,
To the succor of him who decrees it to die.

If my hope of the future, as they tell me be vain, 
Thy lures shall not win me to trust it again;
And the evening of life were but anguish to me,
Did I deem its sad sunlight vouchsafed me by thee.

Thou mayst rule o’er the slaves whom thy fortune has made; 
I am none, and by me thou canst ne’er be betray’d:
I call for no curse on thy head but the one,
To trust with my trust, and, like me, be undone.

Conclusion
President Abraham Lincoln said it best with his foreboding pre-Civil War sentiment that “a 

house divided against itself cannot stand.” As shown through these selected poems, the divisive 
issue of slavery drove a nearly catastrophic wedge through the American people whether it is 
politically or poetically. Through the poems’ implicit tropes and explicit opinions, one begins 
to understand the sheer magnitude and polarizing nature of slavery, and also understand why 
the legacy of slavery persists today.

47 Yeary



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