{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-martyr-of-alabama",
 "title": "The Martyr of Alabama",
 "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": 21,
 "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": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-on-miscellaneous-subjects-1857",
   "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": 84,
  "n_stanzas": 21,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "He lifted up his pleading eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And scanned each cruel face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where cold and brutal cowardice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had left its evil trace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It was when tender memories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round Beth’lem’s manger lay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And mothers told their little ones",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Jesu’s natal day.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And of the Magi from the East",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who came their gifts to bring,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And bow in rev’rence at the feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Salem’s new-born King.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And how the herald angels sang",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The choral song of peace,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That war should close his wrathful lips,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And strife and carnage cease.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At such an hour men well may hush",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their discord and their strife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And o’er that manger clasp their hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With gifts to brighten life.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Alas! that in our favored land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That cruelty and crime",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Should cast their shadows o’er a day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fairest pearl of time.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A dark-browed boy had drawn anear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A band of savage men,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Just as a hapless lamb might stray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into a tiger’s den.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Cruel and dull, they saw in him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For sport an evil chance,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And then demanded of the child",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To give to them a dance.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Come dance for us,” the rough men said;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I can’t,” the child replied,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“I cannot for the dear Lord’s sake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who for my sins once died.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though they were strong and he was weak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He wouldn’t his Lord deny.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His life lay in their cruel hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he for Christ could die.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Heard they aright? Did that brave child",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their mandates dare resist?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Did he against their stern commands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have courage to resist?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then recklessly a man (?) arose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dealt a fearful blow.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He crushed the portals of that life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And laid the brave child low.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And trampled on his prostrate form,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As on a broken toy;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then danced with careless, brutal feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the murdered boy.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Christians! behold that martyred child!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His blood cries from the ground;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the sleepless eye of God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He shows each gaping wound.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! Church of Christ arise! arise!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest crimson stain thy hand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When God shall inquisition make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For blood shed in the land.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Take sackcloth of the darkest hue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shroud the pulpits round;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Servants of him who cannot lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sit mourning on the ground.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let holy horror blanch each brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pale every cheek with fears,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And rocks and stones, if ye could speak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye well might melt to tears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Through every fane send forth a cry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sorrow and regret,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor in an hour of careless ease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy brother’s wrongs forget.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Veil not thine eyes, nor close thy lips,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor speak with bated breath;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This evil shall not always last⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The end of it is death.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Avert the doom that crime must bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon a guilty land;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Strong in the strength that God supplies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For truth and justice stand.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For Christless men, with reckless hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are sowing round thy path",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The tempests wild that yet shall break",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In whirlwinds of God’s wrath.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}