Category: control

to the lords of trade

people had plantations on the water
for the convenience of trade
until it pleased god to increase them
so they would build more close and live in towns.
sixty acres of john flemings farm
with respect to trade
might soon become a flourishing place

site of farmhouse at sunrise
(baltimore town, established in 1729, was surveyed in 1730 and divided into 60 lots around the fleming farmhouse near baltimore and lombard streets)

lot 19

whatsoever person or persons within this province
shall blaspheme god
shall be punished with death,
no person professing to believe in jesus christ shall be troubled.
we studied the glory of god in assurance of victory.
a choir sings at lot 19
that he comes with trumpets proclaiming
and every island and sea and mountain shall flee away.
iroquois say we return thanks to the sun

saint pauls at sunrise
(in 1702 the church of england was established in the colony, and would later, continuing to now, occupy one of the original lots of the town)

whetstone

forty-one pounds sterling
and forty-two shillings
for speculation.
sixteen thousand pounds sterling,
for one hundred thousand pounds of pig iron
shipped across the sea.
then iron for war

silo at sunrise
(the principio company, an iron manufacturer, bought part of what is now locus point in the 1720s and began mining iron ore there)

georgia plantation

gods of tobacco demanded more leaf
so vassals complied
using torture and mass murder
leaving no room in all quarters.
entrepreneurs scraped and cooked fields of clay and ore
into city streets and citadels.
using the means familiar to them and blood for glue

from carroll mansion at sunrise
(most tobacco plantations were in southern maryland, but the site of one carroll family plantation, purchased in 1732, is in west baltimore)

bole armoniack

summer is hot as in spain
winter is cold as in france
thunder and lightning purify the air,
in this place for industrious people.
just here no gold or silver with the iron ore
no way to sail to china
no forts or warriors to count.
but we thank you for the brass cross
and the wonderful map that showed so many the way

harbor at sunrise
(captain john smith explored the chesapeake, including the branches of the patapsco, in 1608 and published a map of the region)

tide covered with froth

along the shores
hunters came
killing with stones
and harvesting,
always walking.
settling where fish teemed,
cultivating and weaving and potting
carving and tanning and painting.
andaste were hunting to the north of this backwater
when a lone shallop
rose on the water with the sun.
and slipped quietly past

cove at sunrise
(humans ranged into the patapsco region more than 18 thousand years ago as the glaciers of the last ice age, which had reached northern pennsylvania, were receding–indigenous people were here when captain john smith explored the region in 1608)