Student Writing on Lettuce

Writing About Lettuce

After spending weeks researching wills, deeds, birth and death records, and other documents found in local archives, students worked collaboratively to piece together a biographical timeline reflecting Lettuce’s history. The most basic elements of the timeline are reflected on the brass Witness Stones memorial, which will be placed on the Madison Town Green in front of the First Congregational Church, near where Lettuce lived and worked when she was enslaved.

Their original assignment called on students to use the facts they had gathered to write individual biographical sketches about Lettuce, taking into account some of the themes they had discussed as a class, including dehumanization, paternalism, the economics of slavery, treatment of the enslaved, and agency and resistance.

But as they sat down to write, students became frustrated. There was so much missing detail in the records that it felt almost impossible to write a nonfiction account that would be both factual and capable of honoring Lettuce's humanity. Inspired in part by a visit from Jumoke McDuffie-Thurmond, a poet whose work reflects his archival research into his enslaved ancestors, students opted for a more creative treatment.

The result is a collection of creative writing — mostly poetry but also song lyrics and a short story. Students have also submitted Author's Statements explaining their intentions in their work and, where available, coupled their writing with visual art inspired by the Witness Stones Project and their search for Lettuce's story.