POEMS

Underground Railroad Poems

The following three poems are about the Featherly House in Sodus Point, New York. We now know this house as the Silver Waters B&B which was owned by David Rogers during the time of the Underground Railroad and in 1976 it was owned by the Featherly family.

Escape to Freedom

The Featherly House is what I’m called nowadays,
But in my time, I was a haven for slaves.
To different places they would run
From southern states to northern ones,
Making a long and risky trip
Hoping to escape the painful whip.

The sound of guards coming near
Searching for runaways hiding here.

Of horses’ footsteps all were afraid,
But safe were they, with my aid.
Through my tunnel and on their way,
Aboard a ship, across the Bay.

Freedom House

Proud to have served the North

Helping slaves be free.

Passing through my walls

At the home of Featherly.

Hiding them in cellars

During most of the day,

But when the skies turned dark,

Through my secret part to the Bay.

They couldn’t have escaped without me,

Because, when I hid a slave,

The South didn’t know where to look,

They were in my secret cave.

The Voice of the Slave

In here, quick, so they don’t see

The escape we’re trying to make.

We’ll get shipped off to Canada

By the large Ontario Lake.

We’ve got to be quiet and careful

We’ve found our chance to be free.

Our lives right now are worthless,

And that isn’t how they should be.

After crawling through this tunnel

That was made for us who slaved.

We’ll count our blessings every day:

Praise God! Praise God! We’re saved.

On The Underground Railroad by Frances C. Taylor.

Frances C. Taylor, The Trackless Trail Leads On, “On The Underground Railroad,” (Privately published, 1995.)

On and on in the dead of night
The weary slave seeks
Freedom through flight.
His clothes are tattered,
His feet are bare;
They bleed from frostbite.
Does no one care?

He follows the Star
With a hope that shines
As dark, through the night,
The trail he finds.
“The Underground Railroad”-
He’s heard its name
This railroad to freedom
Is not in vain.

“As God as my witness,
I’ll follow the Star
O’er the Underground Railroad
Though I know it’s far
To Canada’s shores.
But I’ll then be free
With manumission papers
Issued to me.

Many hands have guided
These weary feet
From station to station
May I repeat –
The conductors that guided me
Have been led by God
By a faith
That is free.”

Walt Whitman's "Drum-Taps" is a sequence of 43 poems about the Civil War, and stands as the finest war poetry written by an American. In these poems Whitman presents, often in innovative ways, his emotional experience of the Civil War.

Click on the link below to view the collection of Civil War poems by Walt Whitman.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/drum-taps/

Clara Barton's poem, The Women Who Went to the Field

The poem was written and delivered by Clara Barton in 1892. The poem describes the nurse's work on the Civil War battlefield. Click on the link below to view the poem by Clara Barton.

CIVIL WAR CIRCLE