About the site

Sweet Freedom’s Song is a political weblog expressing the political ideology, opinions, and commentary of the author, William “Tristan” Berry. The name ‘Sweet Freedom’s Song’ is taken from the third verse of the patriotic hymn ‘My Country, ‘Tis of Thee’

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

The quote “How can we sing a song of freedom in a land where we are not free?” is from the book Sweet Freedom’s Song: ‘My Country, ‘Tis of Thee’, and democracy in America by Robert James Branham and Stephen J. Hartnett, published by Oxford Press in 2002. It is referring to a speech given by Fredrick Douglass on July 5, 1852 where, invited to speak at an Independence Day gathering at Rochester, New York, Douglass compares the situation of the African slave in America with that of the Israelites during the Babylonian captivity. Quoting from Psalm 137, Douglass says:

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

It is to this heartfelt and anguished sentiment that the authors of the book, paraphrasing Douglass’ quote of the psalm ask on his behalf, “How can we sing a song of freedom in a land where we are not free?”

Though it would be a mockery to suggest that the diminished liberties of our current day can be compared to the iron fetters and cruel tortures inflicted upon the African slaves before their emancipation, I submit it as an apt metaphor when one considers the ultimate plight of any people who lose their liberty. Though our chains would be invisible, they would hold us just as fast. Though our punishments would not be physical, they would still be an agony. A nation subjugated by a soft tyranny of restrictive laws and kept poor by excessive taxation is as effectively enslaved as any slave of any age and it matters little in the end whether one’s tyrant flashes a smile or wields a scourge.