Sung at abolitionist gatherings, this song is a declaration of war on slavery. The words of the song itself were written by the famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, and they were set to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.”  “Auld Lang Syne” is very widely used to symbolize other “endings/new beginnings”

The song is meant to encourage abolitionists to stand strong and resist the proponents of slavery in the battle for freedom and liberty in the United States.  European-American abolitionists created songs to persuade others to join their movement, many of them based on Christian hymns.

Live:

1.  I am an Abolitionist!  I glory in the name; 
Though now by slavery’s minions hissed, 
And covered over with shame; 
It is a spell of light and power, 
the watch-word of the free; 
Who spurns it in the trial-hour, A craven soul is he.

2.  I am an Abolitionist!  Then urge me not to pause, 
For joyfully do I enlist in Freedom’s sacred cause; 
A nobler strife the world never saw, 
the Enslaved to disenthrall; 
I am a soldier for the war, whatever may befall.

3.  I am an Abolitionist!  No threats shall awe my soul; 
No perils cause me to desist, No bribes my acts control; 
A freeman will I live and die, In sunshine and in shade, 
And raise my voice for liberty, Of nought on earth afraid.

I am an Abolitionist!  I glory in the name; 
Though now by slavery’s minions hissed, 
And covered over with shame; 
It is a spell of light and power, 
the watch-word of the free; 
Who spurns it in the trial-hour, A craven soul is he.