Poetry · Chapter
To the Union Savers of Cleveland explained
A scathing poetic indictment of the Union savers of Cleveland, who refused to aid a hunted enslaved woman, sending her back to torture and slavery.
What happens
A scathing poetic indictment of the Union savers of Cleveland, who refused to aid a hunted enslaved woman, sending her back to torture and slavery. The poem condemns their coldness, their sacrifice of justice on the altar of the Union, and warns of divine retribution and the inevitable downfall of a Union built on oppression.
Themes in this chapter
Social Injustice and Class
The poem condemns the Union savers for prioritizing political unity over the life and freedom of a vulnerable woman.
Faith and Divine Justice
The narrator invokes God rising in judgment, warning that divine retribution will shake the guilty Union.
Characters to notice
- The People
Addressed as 'Men of Cleveland,' the collective Union savers who failed to act with mercy.
- Unknown Narrator
The prophetic voice denouncing the city's complicity and warning of divine judgment.
Key passages
“But when she, a hunted sister, Stretched her hands that ye might save, Colder far than Zembla’s regions Was the answer that ye gave.”
When the fugitive woman begged for help, your response was colder than the Arctic.
Highlights the moral failure of the Union savers.
“And ye sent her back to torture, Robbed of freedom and of right. Thrust the wretched, captive stranger. Back to slavery’s gloomy night.”
You returned her to a life of torment, stripping her of liberty and dignity.
Condemns the active complicity in returning a fugitive to slavery.
“But ye can not stay the whirlwind, When the storm begins to break; And our God doth rise in judgment, For the poor and needy’s sake.”
You cannot stop the coming storm of divine justice that will defend the oppressed.
Prophetic warning of inevitable divine retribution.