We had a fellow-Passenger who came...

We had a fellow-Passenger who came

From Calais with us, gaudy in array,

A Negro Woman like a Lady gay,

Yet silent as a woman fearing blame;

Dejected, meek, yea pitiably tame,

She sate, from notice turning not away,

But on our proffer'd kindness still did lay

A weight of languid speech, or at the same

Was silent, motionless in eyes and face.

She was a Negro Woman driv'n from France,

Rejected like all others of that race,

Not one of whom may now find footing there;

This the poor Out-cast did to us declare,

Nor murmur'd at the unfeeling Ordinance.