Primary Sources from U.S. Overseas Expansion

Context: Rudyard Kipling, a well-known English author, published a poem in 1899 to express support for the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. The poem drew on ideas of social Darwinism and manifest destiny, reinforcing an argument for annexation rooted in beliefs about racial hierarchies.

1 
Take up the White Man’s burden— 
   Send forth the best ye breed— 
Go bind your sons to exile
 To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
 Half devil and half child. 

2 
Take up the White Man’s burden— 
   In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
   And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
   An hundred times made plain,
To seek another’s profit,
   And work another’s gain. 

3
Take up the White Man’s burden—
   The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of famine
   And bid the sickness cease; 
And when your goal is nearest
   The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
   Bring all your hopes to nought.

4
Take up the White Man’s burden—
   No tawdry rule of kings, 
But toil of serf and sweeper— 
   The tale of common things. 
The ports ye shall not enter, 
   The roads ye shall not tread, 
Go make them with your living, 
   And mark them with your dead! 

5
Take up the White Man’s burden—
   And reap his old reward, 
The blame of those ye better, 
   The hate of those ye guard— 
The cry of hosts ye humour 
   (Ah slowly!) toward the light— 
“Why brought ye us from bondage, 
   ”Our loved Egyptian night?“ 

6
Take up the White Man’s burden—
   Ye dare not stoop to less— 
Nor call too loud on Freedom 
   To cloak your weariness; 
By all ye cry or whisper, 
   By all ye leave or do, 
The silent sullen peoples 
   Shall weigh your Gods and you.
 
7
Take up the White Man’s burden—
   Have done with childish days— 
The lightly proffered laurel, 
   The easy, ungrudged praise. 
Comes now, to search your manhood 
   Through all the thankless years, 
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom, 
   The judgement of your peers.
 

For more information about Rudyard Kipling’s poem or to read his other writings, visit Kipling Society.