In the poem Free Labor by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Indeed, the title, “Free Labor,” imparts a sensenot simply of ease but also of relief and autonomy.This sense is established by the first stanza: “I wearan easy garment, / O’er it no toiling slave / Wepttears of hopeless anguish, / In his passage to thegrave.” The voice is that of the freed slave, employ-ing his labor for his own sustenance and not forthe leisure of a master who does not work himself.