Sugar Trade

Lyrics

Now back when this earth  
Was a silver blue jewel  
And back when your grandfather's  
Father was young,  
Men of these shores  
Made and gave up their lives  
Pulling up fish from the sea.  
  
While down in the African slavery trade,  
Stealing young men to cut sugar cane,  
Rum to New Bedford  
And codfish from Maine,  
They were building a wall  
That will always remain.  
  
Oh, the crown and the cross  
The musket and chain,  
The white man's religion,  
The family name.  
Two hundred years later  
And who is to blame?  
The captain or the cargo  
Or the juice of the sugar cane?  
  
The dory man he knows  
When the riptides will run,  
He sets out his nets  
And he sits in the sun.  
He thinks of his family  
And drinks of his rum  
And he waits for the codfish to come.  
  
It's the same god damned ocean  
That keeps them alive,  
It will swallow you up,  
It will let you survive.  
It will heal you and steal you  
And take you away  
Like a note in a bottle  
With nothing to say  
  
Now back when this earth  
Was a silver blue jewel  
And back when your grandfather's  
Father was young,  
Men of these shores  
Made and gave up their lives  
Pulling up fish from the sea.