Tag: racism

unwanting

woolfolk slatter donovan purvis campbell harker denning
wilson hines fairbanks kephart anderson accinelly,
chained cargo to walk or be hauled down pratt in the middle of the night
to ships agent architect hyperion general pinckney intelligence kirkwood tippecanoe and victorine
and new orleans
uncounted sons or daughters or sisters or brothers or fathers or mothers or lovers.
penned
shackled
sweltered
frozen
drenched
whipped
auctioned.
cash for seamstresses
small fancy girls
fellows
hands
highest prices
always buying.
here is the short list to find our lost soul
adjustment amends atonement
compensation
damages
expiation
indemnification indemnity
punishment
quittance
recompense recoupment redress refund reimbursement remuneration repayment reprisal requital restitution retaliation
satisfaction settlement

west pratt street at sunrise
(several large slave-traders operated from locations around pratt street in the mid-19th century)

inbreeding the clipper

an osprey appeared in the mist
a falling meteorite into the harbor
almost unseen.
another soared twisting turning
outmaneuvering five crows giving chase.
a third skimmed to me
and became a beetle as it landed on my hand
large pincers for piercing fruit
eyes blood red and large for walking in dark shadows
serrated fangs for injecting venom
long antennae curled into smoke
reaching in my nose and oozing out my ears.
i put it in my mouth chewed and swallowed
so my children leave faint traces of its indigo exoskeleton
with each footstep

from swann park at sunrise
(designs adapted from the baltimore clipper were used to build slave-trade ships in the mid-19th century)

maryland imperial

the board believe
the colonists are happy and contented and comfortable
removed from contact with the laboring population from europe
amalgamating the subjects of king freeman
indebted for the great blessing of christianity
the injurious and burdensome replaced by the white.
and still we let boards attempt to believe.
restore the wages

mount clare at sunrise
(the maryland state colonization society was incorporated in 1831, charles carroll was on the board)

taxation without education

excluded from opportunities of respectability in humble confinement
from condescended illusions of independence.
a missed opportunity for assimilated cultural genocide

fayette street at sunrise
(the first public school, not available to african americans who supported it with taxes, opened on holliday and fayette streets in 1829)

baltimore slave clipper

swimming and flying
weaving ocean and wind into a jet stream,
wood and canvass
carved into an arrow hurtling with its bow,
constantly propelled.
swift upon another swifter away in battle.
carrying cargo with express and beauty.
finally refitted for slave transport.
just a rotting rusting weapon

rigging at sunrise
(as world trade required larger shipping vessels in the 19th century, baltimore clippers were repurposed and retrofitted to specialize in transporting slaves and contraband)

concerning crimes and punishments

in a labor-scarce economy
for violations upon the lives, liberties or property, of others
in response to public outrage at the spectacle of convicts laboring on roads
solitary confinement, common silence, and hard labor.
operated profitably

penitentiary at sunrise
(in 1804 the baltimore penitentiary was erected on madison street for confinement and labor as an alternative to public and degrading punishment)

oration upon the moral and political evil of getting it wrong twice

we knew.
to deprive a person to rob their soul
to dwindle into insignificance to eternal infamy
apostates to principal
pursuing destruction propagating vice
rearing youth in habits of cruelty
base collective despotism in unison
citizens as tyrants ignorant of impunity
to be hurled amidst the elements of woe
why do we not step forward eternal will be the disgrace.
perhaps we are merely catalysts for the transfer of heat
from the core to the void.
genocide, enslavement
anthrocide

coal at sunrise
(dr. george buchanan addressed the maryland anti-slavery society in 1791)