On Being Brought From Africa to America

'TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted* soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable** race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."***
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

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* being in a state of spiritual darkness.
** of the color black.
*** the modern spelling would be "dye," meaning a color imparted by dyeing.