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The Stone
Just a little gold glint in the ground
Glimmering like a shooting star
4 lines
“Lettuce
Weaver and mother
Enslaved here
Emancipated 1791, 1793”
So little information about a human’s life
A memorial to a person we don’t really know.
Someone could write pages and pages on Washington, or Lincoln.
But we
Barely
have enough hard facts to write a few pages.
Yet, the purpose of the stone is what makes it great.
She was not known before, but now
Even though it is just a stone,
It carries the weight of a person.
Lettuce Bailey
Lettuce Bailey:
Weaver
Mother
Daughter
Wife
Farmer
The Life of the Enslaved
1765
Slavery is picking up pace
More and more slaves are coming to the colonies.
One man “found” a ship with black people directly from Africa
He tried to teach them,
but they didn’t speak English and
were “immensly stupid”
After his death in 1791, his slaves were freed.
One woman was gifted land and most likely farmed it for a few years.
However, a law was passed in 1792 that said anyone older than 25
and less than 45 years old
and in good health,
would be exempt from a certain law.
The other law said that if a slave was freed,
then the former enslaver would have to
Pay for them when they were in their old age.
Her enslaver’s nephew freed her again in 1793.
He tried and succeeded in cheating the law.
She was in the almshouse in 1812, working for her family
She was forced to bond out her children for money.
Two of which ran away.
Constantly. Always working just to stay above water,
Until December 4th, 1820,
Lettuce Bailey passed away.
Records
Trying to figure out more details
Even her name
Lettuce? Lettice? Bailey? Baley?
No records of her until she is 27 years old with at least three children
We can’t even be sure of the number of children.
After that she disappears again until 1812, where she is in the almshouse.
A house for the poor in their time of need.
But was it? Is a place that indirectly forces you to bond out your children a helpful place? A good place? Working for hours on end just to pay the bills. Is that helpful?
Well, she worked for eight years.
Eight years of her life spent just staying above water in a “helpful” place.
Without help
Working for her family
Working for her life
Author's Statement:
My intention for this anthology was to inform more people about the life of Lettuce. The Stone gives just a glimpse into her life, and I was hoping to widen the readers understanding. I think that I achieved this by writing a general overarching poem about her life, some specific things about her, the struggles that we had when we were doing research of her life, and the stone itself. I hope that people remember her story, but that is not the main goal of this project. The idea is to inspire people to “Restore the history, and honor the humanity and contributions of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities.” - The Witness Stones. The hardest part about incorporating the historical facts was not repeating. I didn’t want to say the same thing over and over even if they were in different poems. It was also really annoying to write these because we really don’t have a lot of information. There are a lot of holes in her story. Years where we don’t even know what happens to her. Overall, it was a very unique experience to write this anthology and authors statement and this project will continue to influence my daily life for years to come.
Chris' painting of a loom symbolizes Lettuce's work as a weaver. (Almshouse records indicate she probably worked as a weaver.)
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