Ballad of Thomas Higgins

Life on the Bark boys
Is better then hell
The Charles W Morgan
I remember her well
So fill up my glass boys
I'll tell you my tale
How I came to New Bedford
To hunt for the whale

I'm called Thomas Higgins
My journey's been long
On a Georgia plantation
In slavery was born
My mother dark and
My father was pale
So I came to New Bedford
To hunt for the whale

Now I was but twenty
When I made my mark
On the log of the Morgan
A fine whaling bark
Her Captain a friend to
The Underground Rail
When I came to New Bedford
To hunt for the whale

Now the Boatsteerer kills boys
And the runaway steals
But the African slave's born
To work and die in the fields
For my sins I just ran boys
With no bill-of-sale
'til I came to New Bedford
to hunt for the whale

Our first voyage took three years
When we finally reached shore
The nation was torn by
A great Civil War
But a proclamation
And the Union prevailed
Still I stayed in New Bedford
To hunt for the whale

Now the whaling life's hard boys
But it's the best that I've known
For a man's just a man boys
And at sea life's his own
For forty three years now
Through the calm and gale
I stayed in New Bedford
To hunt for the whale

______________________
This based on the true story of runaway slave, James Hamlin.
lyrics (c) Jed Marum 2002, traditional melody