And no doubt some of them would thus entitle me,
Though tutored in the city, the college and the sea
Yet the nigger and hybrid, I’d take for a school;
For ’tis hard to beat a pure nigger and a mule.
But a “coon” in new ground, with a kicking mule!
Just so I am far from his heels and am free
To look, and to listen like a pupil in school;
Though frankly I admit, I at times played the fool,
Till the lessons of life had widened my sea,
And harder experience had deepened me.