Black History Month: Frances Harper—Eliza Harris

You may recall the scene from Uncle Tom’s Cabin where Eliza Harris runs across the Ohio River (parts of it covered in ice), risking drowning to secure freedom for herself and her son. The scene, and Frances Harper’s poem which we have excerpted below are based on the story of an actual incident. The full text can be found at Poetry Foundation.

Like a fawn from the arrow, startled and wild,
A woman swept by us, bearing child;
In her eye was the night of a settled despair,
And her brow was o’ershaded with anguish and care.

She was nearing the river—in reaching the brink,
She heeded no danger, she paused not to think!
For she is a mother—hey child is a stave—
And she’ll give him his freedom, or find him a grave!

It was a vision to haunt us, that innocent faces—
So pale in its aspect, so fair in its grace;
As the tramp of the horse and the bay of the hound,
With the fetters that gall, were trailing the ground!

She was nerv’d by despair, and strengthened by woe,
As she leap’d o’er the chasms that yawn’d from below;
Death howl’d in the tempest, and rav’d in the blast,
But she heard not the sound till the danger was past…

In honor of Black History Month, we will post an inspirational cultural item each day.