James Taylor - Sugar Trade Lyrics
Now back when this earth was a silver blue jewelAnd back when your grandfathers father was youngMen of these shores made and gave up their livesPulling up fish from the seaWhile down in the african slavery tradeStealing young men to cut sugar caneRum to new bedford and codfish from maineThey were building a wall that will always remainOh, the crown and the cross the musket and chainThe white mans religion, the family nameTwo hundred years later and who is to blame?The captain or the cargo or the juice of the sugar caneThe doryman he knows when the riptides will runHe sets out his nets and he sits in the sunHe thinks of his family and drinks of his rumAnd he waits for the codfish to comeIts the same god-damned ocean that keeps them aliveIt will swallow you up, it will let you surviveIt will heal you and steal you and take you awayLike a note in a bottle with nothing to sayNow back when this earth was a silver blue jewelAnd back when your grandfathers father was youngMen of these shores made and gave up their livesPulling up fish from the sea
