I looked upon the book of life 

Tracing the lines of face after face 

Looking down at their naked feet 

Bound in chains bound in chains 

Chains of leather chains of gold

We knew it was wrong but we looked away 

And paraded them down the colonial streets 

And that's how they became enslaved 



They came across on the great ships

Mothers separated from their babes 

Husbands stood on the auction block 

Bound in chains bound in chains 

Chains of leather chains of gold

Men knew it was wrong but they looked away

And led them to toil in fields of white

As they turned their necks to a bitter landscape 



Oh the people I hear them calling

Am I not a man and a brother

Am I not a woman and a sister 



History sends us such strange messengers

They come down through time 

To embrace to enrage 

And in their arms even stranger fruit 

And they swing from the trees

With their vision in flames

Ropes of leather ropes of gold 

Men knew it was wrong but they looked away 

Messengers swinging from twisted rope 

As they turned their necks to a bitter landscape 



Oh the people I hear them calling

Am I not a man and a brother 

Am I not a woman and a siste

r We will be heard we will be heard