Peter Buchan in 'Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, Hitherto Unpublished, with Explanatory Notes', 1828, included in Volume 2, page 215, the following song which is considerably more singable than most in his collection. I have no idea of the tune and Buchan gave no melodies; I haven't come across this in any modern collection with tunes either.
I have left all spellings as they are given but removed some surplus punctuation from the song words.
Seven lang years I serv'd
To Captain Welsh, a laird
In the lands of Virginia-O
And he so cruelly
Sold me to Madam Guy
And O but I'm weary, weary O!
We are yoked to a plough
And wearied sair enough
In the lands of Virginia-O
With the yoke upon our neck
Till our hearts are like to break
And O but I'm weary, weary O!
When we're called home to meat
There's little there to eat
In the lands of Virginia-O
We're whipt at every meal
And our backs they never heal
And O but I'm weary, weary Oh!
When our madam she does walk
We must all be at her back
In the lands of Virginia-O
When our baby it does weep
We must lull it o'er asleep
And O but I'm weary, weary O!
At mid time of the day
When our master goes to play
In the lands of Virginia-O
Our factor stands near by
With his rod below his thigh
And O but I'm weary, weary O!
But if I had the chance
Fair Scotland to advance
From the lands of Virginia-O
Never more should I
Be a slave to Madam Guy
And O but I'm weary, weary O!
This is the plaintive voice of the heart; it breathes with fervency,
and details a few of those hardships to which the unfortunate victims
are
liable who have fallen into those monsters of impiety's hands that have
been the means of their transportation and slavery.
The practice of kidnapping, or stealing children
from their parents, in the north of Scotland, from 1735 down to 1753,
of
period of 18 years inclusive, and selling them for slaves to the
planters
of Maryland, Virginia, &c. In North America, is too notorious to
require
any illustration here. Even some of the good magistrates and principal
merchants of Aberdeen, in those days, had a hand in this most
diabolical
traffic; as may be seen from a book kept by Walter Cochran,
town-clerk-depute
of Aberdeen.
It is also well known to many people in this
country,
*with* what unheard-of reception, cruelty, and lawless oppression, one
of those captives, namely, Peter Williamson, after having undergone the
most cruel torments by the savage Indians, met *with* from these
magistrates
on his return from slavery, to his native land.
Instead of sympathising with his woes, welcoming
(him) home with gladness, as a fellow-mortal, and giving him that
redress
*to* which the laws of his country warranted, and he (was) justly
entitled;
more cruel than the most barbarous savages, they stript him of his all,
i.e. the books, which the more generous, and more humane magistrates of
York, had caused to be printed for him at their sole expense, as a
means
for his subsistence.
These the Bon Accord magistrates of 1753, publicly
burned by the hands of the common hangman. Not even satisfied with
this,
he was imprisoned (sic), loaded with every opprobrious name of
reproach,
branded with the name of an imposter and liar; in short, every thing
that
was evil was laid to his charge, merely because he had told too much of
the truth, and exposed too much of the knavery of these satanical
commercialists,
in his little book. Thank God, we are now free from those inhuman
monsters
of cruelty; those corrupt judges, and arbitrary and tyrannical
magistrates,
in this part of the country.
The lesson which all might have learned from the
decision of that venerable and impartial body of noblemen and
gentlemen,
the College of Justice in Edinburgh, on this occasion, will, I hope,
operate
strongly on the minds of all those in power, not unjustly, nor
lawlessly
to oppose any one, however poor in circumstances, as they may meet with
a friend to advocate their cause, as did the unfortunate Peter
Williamson,
when they least expected it.**
Those who may be more desirous of knowing the nature
and the extent of that kidnapping was once carried on in Aberdeen, by a
set of the most unprincipalled ruffians, dead to all the feelings of
humanity,
I shall give a short sketch of it in the identical words of one of the
sufferers.
"The trade of carrying off boys to the plantations in America, and
selling
them there as slaves, was carried on at Aberdeen, as far down as the
year
1744, with amazing effrontery. It was not carried on in secret, or by
stealth,
but publicly, and by open violence. The whole neighbouring country were
alarmed at it. They would not allow their children to go to Aberdeen,
for
fear of being kidnapped. When they kept (them) at home, emissaries were
sent out by the merchants, who took them by violence from their
parents,
and carried them off. If a child was amissing, it was immediately
suspected
that he was kidnapped by the Aberdeen merchants; and upon inquiry, that
was often found to be the case; and so little pains were taken to
conceal
them, when in the possession of the merchants, that they were driven in
flocks through the town, under the inspection of a keeper, who overawed
them with a whip, like so many sheep carrying to the slaughter.
"Not only were these flocks of unhappy children
locked up in barns, and places of private confinement, but even the
tolbooth
and public workhouses were made receptacles for them, and a town
officer
employed in keeping them. Parties of worthless fellows, like
press-gangs,
were hired to patrol the streets, and seize by force such boys as
seemed
proper subjects for the slave-trade. The practice was but too general.
The names of no less than fifteen merchants, concerned in this trade,
are
mentioned in the proof: and when so many are singled out by the
witnesses,
it is hardly to be imagined it should be confined to these only, but
that
they must have omitted many, who were either principals or abettors and
decoys in this infamous traffic. Some of the witness depone, that it
was
the general opinion that the magistrates themselves had a hand in it.
"But what exceeds every proof, and is equal to an
acknowledgment, is, that from a book of accounts, recovered on leading
the proof, recording the expenses laid out on a cargo of these
unfortunate
objects, it appears, that no less than sixty-nine boys and girls were
carried
over to America along with me, all of whom suffered the same fate of
being
shipwrecked, and many of them sold as slaves.
"After such a demonstration of my veracity, and
maltreatment I had formerly suffered, the reader, it is believed,
cannot
but reflect, with some degree of indignation, on the iniquitous
sentence
of the magistrates of Aberdeen, and commiserate the dismal situation to
which I was reduced, in consequence of that tyrannical decision. Stript
at once of my all, and my only means of subsistence,- branded with the
character of a vagrant and imposter, and stigmatized as such in the
Aberdeen
Journal, banished from the capital of the country wherein I was born,
and
left to the mercy of the wide world, loaded with all the infamy that
malice
could invent: What a deplorable situation is this! I could not help
considering
myself in a more wretched state, to be reduced to submit to such
barbarities
in a civilized country, and the place of my nativity, than when a
captive
among the savage Indians, who boast not of humanity!"-Peter Williamson
Listed at the end of my 1828 volumes of Buchan, printed by 'William Aitken, Printer, Bank Street' are the subscribers to the first edition. They include Sir Walter Scott (2 copies), Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, James Skene of Rubislaw, William Motherwell of Paisley, R A Smith of Edinburgh...
- David Kilpatrick, Kelso, Jan 16 2001