Jay's Poetry
Trapped
by Jay D.
An enslaved woman, Lettuce.
Held captive like a bird in a cage.
The bird keeper Jonathan Todd, preventing her,
She cannot fly away.
She cannot accomplish as much
As she would if she were free.
But instead, she is stuck in the cage.
Catching glimpses of freedom,
But she remains hopeful,
Trying, in little ways, to express herself.
The cage pulls her and entraps with a force of hatred.
Finally, the bird keeper gives in, she is freed, yet not permanently,
And she ends up in the Almshouse,
Another cage, yet there is a different bird keeper.
Working to support her children,
Fifty-Five years,
Of servitude and entrapment in her cage.
Yet she still flies.
Humanization
A Mother to Peleg, Sukey, Fredrich, Emma, Eli, Daughter R.,
“I do Declare my Will in respect to my servants & slaves”,
A Wife to Cesar Bailey,
“the Enslaving of the Africans brought from Africa”,
The daughter of Tamar,
“and as for my servant maid Lettuce”,
A spinner and weaver,
“Children of Lettuce... shall be free”,
A seller of meats and hides,
“she shall be free so long as she can and does maintain herself”,
A hard worker and a determined individual,
“if they can and do support themselves so long and their Children”,
A provider and supporter of children,
“but if they can’t and do not support themselves”,
A human being.
Old Times
In the olden days,
Enslavement was accepted.
They were wrong,
Human beings are human beings
Not property.
They had rights,
They weren’t less intelligent.
They breathed,
They ate.
They slept,
They talked.
They questioned,
They heard.
They saw,
They felt.
They are more.
Jay's artwork, depicting the Witness Stones memorial students are installing in honor of Lettuce.
Author’s Statement
There were many things that I had hoped to accomplish while writing these pieces. The primary goal would be Lettuce’s humanity. Lettuce was not just a slave, she was a human and she was a person with different personality traits. I think I achieved this by including aspects of Lettuce’s life. I included that she had a family and that she had hobbies. I hope people will remember one main thing after they see one or more of my poems. I hope they will remember that enslaved people actually accomplished things and they had hobbies. I tried to intertwine some historical facts into my poems. In the poem, “Humanization” the historical aspect was apparent as I quoted from primary documents. I think the most challenging part was the fact that we didn’t have all of the information. There were many holes in Lettuce’s story so we had to work with what we had, which was just the vital statistics. Overall, I definitely learned a lot about Lettuce and I also learned a little bit about what a historian’s job is like.