Blood on the Cornfields

August in Virginia
 A warm brandy night in 1831
 Hidden in woodlands
 Seven slaves discussed the freedoms to be won
 Christ's blood on the cornfields
 A benighted hand to suffocate the sun
 War with the serpent
 Visions from the book led a preacher to the gun
 "Seek ye the kingdom of heaven
 And all things shall be added unto you"
 Words from the spirit
 To see South Ampton county's insurrection through
 Hoisting the window
 The rebels burst into the sleeping master's room
 Blows from their hatchets
 Each child's bed a crimson, wodden tomb
 "Was Christ not crucified?"
 In deadly silence the farms were sacked
 Alerting no free man to the next attack
 Sixty fell to their axes and their swords
 The General foretelling salvation from the Lord
 Recruiting warriors they freed
 From the ranks of the flogged
 They rode through the bogs
 A cavalry of stolen steeds
 The wrath of the unbound
 The oppressors' constant fear
 The screams of two hundred years
 Piqued the ears of the white man's hounds
 Lynch mobs' slaughters
 Of black sons and daughters
 Blameless in this battle
 Butchered as cattle
 The deep south trembled at the negro prophet's renown
 Vengeful militas hunted the panicked slaves down
 Captured near his cavern
 Judged in Jerusalem
 Turner, brimming with glory
 Confessed to his story
 Led to the gallows of cavalry
 A killer, a martyr, grinned
 His deeds etched in history
 His body hanged and skinned