{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-dying-bondman",
 "title": "The Dying Bondman",
 "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": 7,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Life was trembling, faintly trembling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the bondman’s latest breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he felt the chilling pressure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the cold, hard hand of Death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He had been an Afric chieftain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worn his manhood as a crown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But upon the field of battle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had been fiercely stricken down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He had longed to gain his freedom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waited, watched and hoped in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till his life was slowly ebbing⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Almost broken was his chain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By his bedside stood the master,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gazing on the dying one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Knowing by the dull grey shadows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That life’s sands were almost run.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Master,” said the dying bondman,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Home and friends I soon shall see;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But before I reach my country,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Master write that I am free;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For the spirits of my fathers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would shrink back from me in pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If I told them at our greeting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I a slave had lived and died;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Give to me the precious token,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That my kindred dead may see⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Master! write it, write it quickly!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Master! write that I am free!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At his earnest plea the master",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrote for him the glad release,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er his wan and wasted features",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flitted one sweet smile of peace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eagerly he grasped the writing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I am free!” at last he said.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Backward fell upon the pillow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He was free among the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}