Meditations on Generations

For Jane, born in Lyme, Connecticut, 1726

Think of any toddler you know and love.

See how they talk, see how they walk, see how they toddle.

Think of any toddler you know and love.

Remember how curious they are, how intent?

Think of any toddler you might see in the park.

See how bold they are, how shy, how tiny

peeking from behind Mommy or Daddy or Gram.

____

Imagine a kitchen scene in 1726:

There’s a baby, Little Jane swaddled in a blanket,

in a basket on the floor, facing sunlight coming in through the open back door.

The baby’s mother, Temperance, coos as she cuts the turnips and carrots for

supper, in Mr. Noyes’s house, where they live, on the main street.

Now, imagine this scene, disturbed. (Change is on the ledger.)

How might it have happened? Would Temperance be summoned to the study?

Or, would it have been deemed more proper for a servant to tell her to pack

her few things. Just how do you bring up this subject?

Was there any conversation? Was someone upset?

Was someone angry?

Temperance found herself sold away from her child, then married,

all within one week during the first month of the new year.

How did she manage to proceed with her duties, her life;

one foot in front of the other?

____

I stare at fragments of History. A flash.

There it is—hidden in plain sight.

A woman had a baby. This woman was sold away before

the baby reached her first birthday.

Why? Who would do such a thing? And, why?

Who would sell? Who would buy?

____

Then, here it is, again—

that one-two punch

that ongoing, genteel assault called

Slavery in New England:

Temperance, age 20, was sold to Richard Lord in 1726, the same year she gave birth. Why would someone separate a girl from her newborn?

Cross-fade:

It’s 1729. They sold the baby.

Did The State define the child as illegitimate?

Did The Church categorize her as bastard?

(Think how anyone would feel.)

Just the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts:

Jane, daughter of Temperance, granddaughter of Jane, of the Narragansett

was born in the Peck home in 1726, Lyme, Connecticut.

In 1729, Joseph Peck Jr. sold Jane (age 3) to

Benjamin Read (age 29) for the sum of 25 pounds.

(According to Professor Eric W. Nye of the University of

Wyoming, this sum is equal to $5,520.25, in 2021 dollars.)

Mr. Peck, declares in the bill of sale that the child is “molado,” that is to say:

“white” and “indian.”

____

I can imagine that wherever Jane went during her lifetime,

there would always be someone to make note of her

complexion: Too dark. Too light.

____

One powerful man, a man of means, sold a toddler to another man of means.

Why was a “molado,” toddler girl worth so much in colonial Connecticut?

Who has the stomach to ponder such a question? Who has the heart?

What I do know, what I can say is that Jane is special.

I declare that Jane stands for all of the

girls and women who were bought, sold,

lost, forced, coerced, confused,

misnamed; undocumented

except in a ship’s manifest,

a yearly inventory,

a last will and testament,

a bill of sale.

____

Dear Jane,

I do not know, yet, where you lived,

who took care of you, how you lived your life.

I do know that you were loved.

You were named after your grandmother.

I’ll remember you, Jane. You were here.

I will honor you, respect you;

hold you in my words.

Notes:

This poem is from “The Witness Stones Project” portfolio that appeared in the November 2021 issue. The authors write about the series and the collaborative process here.

Source: Poetry (November 2021)