{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-tennessee-hero",
 "title": "The Tennessee Hero",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects",
 "book_slug": "poems-on-miscellaneous-subjects",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 13,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1854,
  "venue": "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonmiscellan00harp",
   "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42194389"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "He stood before the savage throng,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The base and coward crew;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A tameless light flashed from his eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His heart beat firm and true.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He was the hero of his band,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The noblest of them all;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though fetters galled his weary limbs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His spirit spurned their thrall.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And towered, in its manly might,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above the murderous crew.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! liberty had nerved his heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every pulse beat true.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Now tell us,” said the savage troop,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And life thy gain shall be!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who are the men that plotting, say⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘They must and will be free!’ ”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, could you have seen the hero then,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As his lofty soul arose,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And his dauntless eyes defiance flashed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On his mean and craven foes!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I know the men who would be free;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are the heroes of your land;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But death and torture I defy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere I betray that band.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And what! oh, what is life to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath your base control?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay! do your worst. Ye have no chains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bind my free-born soul.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They brought the hateful lash and scourge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With murder in each eye.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But a solemn vow was on his lips⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He had resolved to die.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, rather than betray his trust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’d meet a death of pain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas sweeter far to meet it thus",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than wear a treason stain!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like storms of wrath, of hate and pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blows rained thick and fast;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But the monarch soul kept true",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the gates of life were past.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the martyr spirit fled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the throne of God on high,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And showed his gaping wounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the unslumbering eye.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}