In this excerpt from Phillip Freneau's poem “American Liberty,” the speaker describes being “slaves and minions to a parliament.” What is the intended meaning of this hyperbole? And should we now when spread thro' ev'ry shore,
Submit to that our fathers shunn'd before?
Should we, just heaven, our blood and labour spent,
be slaves and minions to a parliament?
Perish the thought, nor may one wretch remain,
Who dares not fight and in our cause be slain;