Sugar Trade Lyrics - Dad Loves His Work - James Taylor

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 doryman 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