This scene talks about the effects of the last crossing. It presents Robert McBride singing "Oh Zion, When I think of Thee." His sons record he sang this song the day before he passed away. I discovered after we did the play that this song was set to the music of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief."
The entire song goes like this, although there is no record if Robert sang the entire song.
O Zion, when I think of thee,
I long for pinions like the dove,
And mourn to think that I should be
So distant from the land I love.
I long for pinions like the dove,
And mourn to think that I should be
So distant from the land I love.
A captive exile, far from home.
For Zion's sacred walls I sigh,
With ransomed kindred there to come,
And see Messiah eye to eye.
For Zion's sacred walls I sigh,
With ransomed kindred there to come,
And see Messiah eye to eye.
While here, I walk on hostile ground;
The few that I can call my friends
Are, like myself, in fetters bound,
And weariness our steps attends.
The few that I can call my friends
Are, like myself, in fetters bound,
And weariness our steps attends.
But yet we hope to see the day
When Zion's children shall return,
When all our grief shall flee away,
And we again no more shall mourn.
When Zion's children shall return,
When all our grief shall flee away,
And we again no more shall mourn.
The thought that such a day will come,
Makes e'en the exile's portion sweet;
Though now we wander far from home,
In Zion soon we all shall meet.
Makes e'en the exile's portion sweet;
Though now we wander far from home,
In Zion soon we all shall meet.
Our family lore says that Betsy froze her feet at the last crossing, which lead to her death a short time later. The removal of flesh with a knife and without anesthesia would have been common. Ephraim Hanks later documented performing many such surgeries.
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