{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/a-story-of-the-rebellion",
 "title": "A Story of the Rebellion",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Atlanta Offering: Poems",
 "book_slug": "atlanta-offering",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 25,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1895,
  "venue": "Atlanta Offering: Poems (1895)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonmiscellan00harp",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-1871",
   "https://archive.org/details/poems01harp",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007491600",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100774124",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-full-text-1895",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100488369",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-idylls-of-the-bible-1901",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100319488",
   "https://archive.org/details/historyofafrican00payn",
   "https://archive.org/details/WeeklyAngloAfricanI",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1858-05-14_28_20",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000500702",
   "https://archive.org/details/undergroundrailr00stil",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872",
   "https://archive.org/details/25th-annual-report-of-the-board-of-managers-of-the-home-etc",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_light-beyond-the-darkness",
   "https://archive.org/details/ame-church-review-1900-04"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The treacherous sands had caught our boat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And held it with a strong embrace",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And death at our imprisoned crew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was sternly looking face to face.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With anxious hearts, but failing strength,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We strove to push the boat from shore;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But all in vain, for there we lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With bated breath and useless oar.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Around us in a fearful storm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fiery hail fell thick and fast;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And we engirded by the sand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could not return the dreadful blast.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When one arose upon whose brow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ardent sun had left his trace;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A noble purpose strong and high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uplighting all his dusky face.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Perchance within that fateful hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wrongs of ages thronged apace;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But with it came the glorious hope",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of swift deliverance to his race.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of galling chains asunder rent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of severed hearts again made one,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of freedom crowning all the land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through battles gained and victories won.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Some one,” our hero firmly said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Must die to get us out of this;”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then leaped upon the strand and bared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His bosom to the bullets’ hiss.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But ye are soldiers, and can fight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May win in battles yet unfought;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I have no offering but my life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And if they kill me it is nought.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With steady hands he grasped the boat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And boldly pushed it from the shore;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then fell by rebel bullets pierced,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His life work grandly, nobly o’er.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Our boat was rescued from the sands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And launched in safety on the tide;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But he our comrade good and grand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In our defence had bravely died.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}