Sailing from Africa to the Gulf of Mexico
A cargo of fear shackled below.
The voyage blessed with good weather, calm seas,
And not too many lost to dysentery.
Chained by iron, color and a lack of Christian faith
The wretched lay huddled, shackled, unable to move.
Six weeks for the survivors, less for the fortunate dead,
Before landfall on the Mississippi coast.
And we can now wonder, did Captain De Laudoine
Sense the irony of his endeavors,
Delivering people to a lifetime of slavery,
In the “Land of the Free?”
An excerpt from the book, “A Mixed Bag.”
rixlibris 