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I Bought Myself An African

from Stolen From God by Reg Meuross

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about

In 1772 in Virginia, there was a different smoke rising as the small fires of American Revolution crackled into life, and the first act of mass emancipation took place when the colonial British Army offered freedom to any black slaves who would fight with them. Approximately 100,000 enslaved people escaped, drawn by the promise of freedom, and around 20,000 of them joined the British Army, many returning to England with their regiment once the war was over.
After the Anglo American war of 1812 over 1000 African American military prisoners were held in Dartmoor Jail where they formed their own community in cell block 4. By all accounts they were well organised with prayer services, boxing and fitness programmes and an elected leader named Richard Craftus, known by his fellow prisoners as King Dick.
The total black population of Britain in the second half of the 18th century was thought to be around 20,000, the majority being brought here by traders as domestic servants.  
My father always told me son be smart 
Buy yourself an African to pull that heavy cart
My father always said son use your brain 
Buy yourself an African to cut your sugar cane

lyrics

I Bought Myself An African

My father always told me son be smart
Buy yourself an African to pull that heavy cart
My father always said son use your brain
Buy yourself an African to cut your sugar cane

My father was a Bristol man in trade
In sugar and molasses there were fortunes to be made
To gain a place in high society
A man must grow his interest in this golden industry

We headed for the coast of Senegal
With copper cloth and gunpowder pretty beads and wool
Then southward to the port of Calabar
Where the smell of death hangs heavy & tobacco smoke & tar
And I found myself in Africa

We bartered with the Barbary Corsair
His dagger on his waist and on his face the blackest hair
The captain said ‘The devil’s in that man’
But god was on our side and we’d be guided by his hand
And I bought myself an African

If Satan owned the cursed barbarian
And God’s with us then who stands with the wretched African
Abandoned by all saints and gods he seemed
And cast into some nightmare some forsaken spirit dreamed
And I bought myself an African Queen

And so the day went on and by the end
I’d bought 200 women folk and girls and boys and men
The captain said ‘These bodies that you see
Think on them as chattels like some cheap commodities’
And I bought another Africans three

Their purpose is to labour for your need
Sanctioned by his holiness by royalty decreed
And it’s the right of every Englishman
To keep by your protection and to govern by your hand
So I bought myself an African
I bought myself an African

credits

from Stolen From God, released April 7, 2023
Reg Meuross: Vocal / Guitar
Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne: Concertina
Jali Fily Cissokho : Vocal (Gorée)
Tom Jobling: Bass / Percussion

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Reg Meuross England, UK

The breadth and depth of Reg Meuross’s material is unparalleled in contemporary folk: songs about forgotten heroes, famous names, folk legends, the climate emergency, tales from the kitchen sink and news from the world stage; if something needs to be sung about then Reg Meuross has a song for it. ... more

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