Dear Mr. President:

You hold your office based on the Constitution
But how do you explain my position?
Isn’t it that document that makes all men equal?
How then can I be a slave, is that legal?
The Declaration of Independence stated all men are entitled to the pursuit of happiness
But how can I ever be happy when I’m forced to live a life of distress?
What you profess and what you condone is contradictory
To be a slave in a democracy is the height of hypocrisy  

Mr. President, I work sunup to sundown 
And I’m beaten if I stop or slow down
With all I’ve harvested, all I’ve sown
I can claim none of it as my own
I produce a great abundance in quantity
But get back a bare annual ration of clothes of poor quality
I am put to live in a little shoddy shack in an unsanitary compound
And still have to find my meal from the unfertile ground around

Mr. President, any extra I get is from what I barter
But it’s hard to find time to produce something to offer
All I can claim of independence is a trip to Sunday market
Seems it’ll be this way ‘till I’m placed in my casket
Even then I might not get a funeral to be remembered
Due to selling and profiteering, by then all my familial bonds will have been severed 
I’ve been treated as less than a beast
Either give me some human rights or put me back on a vessel headed east

Mr. President, the depth of the problem I’ll spill from this pen
You see, I don’t even have rights to my children
Though I’m condemned, I’d like to see them have a better future
But they’re denied any access to a teacher
They can only expect to experience the torture I bare
And without warning, they can be sold away from my care
Once gone, I can never expect to see them again
I can only live the rest of my life in psychological pain

Mr. President, I am an adult living under nightly curfew
From the abuse of white folks I can’t even sue
My marriage has no legal standing
I can be permanently separated from my wife without warning or a divorce proceeding
I cannot travel freely about
Even those few liberated blacks need a traveling pass anywhere in the South
Though I am an adult of years, I’m addressed as a boy
Even the white man’s children take me for a toy

Mr. President, I have been whipped on several occasions to make blood run down my back
What about the national laws against cruel and unusual punishment, which slavery and slave society lack
I’ve been treated worse than a colt, even nailed with a bolt
But God save me if I should even discuss a revolt
I’ve actually seen and experienced many behaviors that moved me to rebel because of their inherent shame 
Women, for example, have been stripped naked in front of their family and friends, 
and beaten ‘till they know not their name
They’ve often been exploited by their master for his good pleasure
Yet he only treats the children of his wife as treasure

Mr. President, atrocity upon atrocity upon atrocity
I’ve experienced, seen and heard many from country to city
Many committed in the name of Christianity
Could God bless men who’ve lost their humanity,
And who’ve stigmatized, brutalized, and enslaved people based on their identity?
For me, this rationale has gone past the point of insanity
Mr. President, please purge this territory of this iniquity

cc:	Founding Fathers (slave owners)