Cuz I was that black slave

I was that black mother

Who slaved away to teach her child to

Read and write in the middle of the night

At the sound of the whippoorwill

And the croak of the bullfrogs

Held in these invisible chains of steel

Forced to pick cotton in the burning sun

Continuing to work after the day was done

Binding the wounds on his back

And because of the black and the way he

Talked back

His child has to watch his pain

Being dragged away on the devil's slave chain

Blood gushing from his body

From the blows given by his massa'

His egotistical self would not shut up and work faster

She works and stays quiet

Her lungs full of disease

Still she finds strength to teach that child his

ABCs

Till that fateful day, dark as the grave

She has to watch her child get sold away

His skin was a beauty and

His hair was a fright

The white men, they want him because of

His might

A strapping lad not easily tired

Growing up to be just like his sire

He too feels the sting of the strap on his skin

Filled with defiance, he raises his chin

The cycle goes on, the chains don't break

The liberty comes in the groans she makes

For her child

And his father

To teach the alphabet why did she bother

She wanted her child someday to be free

Be the great man he was meant to be

At the sound of the whippoorwill

And the croak of the bullfrogs

She feels her agony complete

And dies in pain at her massa's feet