Although Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is today generally recognized as the most important black poet of the 19th century, her great importance became appreciated only in the second half of the 20th century.

Born free in Baltimore in 1825 and orphaned at an early age, Harper's interest in literature can be traced to her formal education in a Baltimore school for free blacks founded and run by her uncle. Most free blacks so educated were expected to go into the teaching profession. And, as was the custom for free young, Northern black women, she took a position as a live-in maid with a white Baltimore family, the Armstrongs. There her interest in literature was stimulated. Mr. Armstrong owned a bookshop and the fourteen-year-old Frances was a rather fortunate nineteenth century black domestic.

She performed the required household chores for the family and since she could read and write, she was given access to the family library, and no doubt, spent considerable time in the bookshop.

She soon became increasingly interested in the growing anti-slavery movement. Between 1854 and 1901, Harper wrote continuously while she was in the forefront of radical black and women's movements as a lecturer and public spokesperson. The resulting eleven books of poetry and prose serve as a testament to this remarkable woman. Harper's life and work can be regarded as a model of ideological and political development and professional commitment.

Oskar Morawetz combines in this composition two of Harper's most moving and best-known poems - the first describing the horrible suffering and humiliation of blacks under their tyrannical and heartless masters; the second is a prayer to God that He may give them a free place, at least after their earthly journey is finished.