Tarred and Feathered Back Then"
[Banjo, Guitar,]
[Male Narrator]
Verse 1
In seventeen ninety-one, the law was passed,
A whiskey tax to make debts last.
Alexander Hamilton led the call,
To fund the nation and unite us all.
But frontier folk, with grain in hand,
Saw their whiskey taxed across the land.
No cash to pay, just toil and strife,
Their whiskey was their trade, their life.
Verse 2
Hamilton’s plan had noble intent,
To pay war debts and build government.
But small-scale farmers bore the cost,
Their livelihoods at risk, their freedom lost.
The eastern elite paid less by design,
While frontier folks walked a harder line.
They cried, "This tax is unjust and cruel!
We’ll not be pawns in your federal rule!"
[Female Vocals]
Chorus
Oh, seventeen ninety-one, hear our plea,
We fight for life and liberty.
A farmer’s wage is all we own,
Don’t take our whiskey; don’t take our home.
[Male Narrator]
Verse 3
From Western hills to Pennsylvania’s plains,
The tax ignited fiery chains.
Tarring tax collectors, rebellion grew,
A cry for justice long overdue.
Washington marched with troops so vast,
To prove the government would hold fast.
The rebels fled; their cause undone,
But their fight for fairness had just begun.
[Female Vocals]
Bridge
In seventeen ninety-one, a lesson was taught:
A nation divided cannot be bought.
From whiskey tax to modern day strife,
The echoes of protest shape our life.
Chorus
Oh, seventeen ninety-one, hear our plea,
We fight for life and liberty.
A farmer’s wage is all we own,
Don’t take our whiskey; don’t take our home.
[Female Narrator]
Outro
Tarring and feathering was frontier rage,
A protest act in a heated stage.
But tariffs tax goods that cross the seas,
The whiskey tax was domestic fees.
Raise a glass to those who tried,
To stand for rights though some defied.
They tarred and feathered the men back then—
How do you think we should act now, my friend?
DrummerDave26
