by Catherine Sasanov
Pepperrell Cove, Kittery, Maine
In memory,
to ———-
Where did they bury your not figurative bones?
Who carried your name, passed it on
a few miles, a few years, a few minutes,
whole lifetimes or half
a world away? Who carried
(who carries) the memory of your face:
blood eked out over generations?
stopped dead at Piscataqua’s shore?
A slave owner’s, slave trader’s
decomposing initial
sharing your grave. No. It’s dust
of the Biblical
slingshot. Stone
finally reaching its mark.
Where did they bury you? The centuries
of ice heaves, tree roots
dislodging headaches
of field stone
balanced on your skull.
The author, two or three years ago, received from a friend in New York, a package of papers, which he desired to use as materials for a Life of Sir William Pepperrell, the renowned ‘Hero of Louisburg.’ These papers had been exposed in an old shed on the Pepperrell estate, probably for half a century, and were much stained and defaced. Indeed a part of them had become almost illegible, while others, on examination, proved to be of little value, being, in fact, mere business receipts, bills of lading, accounts, and memorandums. They were saved from total destruction by Colonel George Sparhawk, who, allied by marriage to descendants of Sir William, and living near the Pepperrell mansion, arranged them according to their dates, in a sequence of years from 1696 to 1759.
Usher Parsons, Life of Sir William Pepperrell, bart: the only native of New England
who was created a baronet during our connection with the mother country (1856)
When, some years after [my grandfather’s] death, my godmother moved house, the cabinet was emptied and the letters packed up in two suitcases.
Years passed; one day, at breakfast, for no perceptible reason, the clear thought came to my head, ‘Today is the day for trying to sort out the letters.’
I left the breakfast things on the table and fetched the two suitcases from the attic, dusted them and sat down on the floor to open them. When the light became too dim to read by, I realized the end of the day had come; the breakfast things were still on the table and I was still on the floor, surrounded by letters and half-defined people, some with husbands and children and cousins, others adrift in a world of anonymous, and usually undated, gossip.
No one else will ever be able to have the fun I had with these letters. That is my only regret in having done what I have done with them. I have made bits of them accessible to other Pepperrell descendants who would like to know a smattering of the Pepperrell past… but for anyone who wants a rather larger smattering I have made it impossible to wade into the sea of letters without a compass.
Virginia Browne-Wilkinson, Pepperrell Posterity (1982)
Lost Lesson:
New England Primer, 1719
YThe first letter
in a long list of grievances
to be inscribed on a back,
written with a whip, with a bit
of burning alphabet,
searing.
At the Port of Piscataqua,
Kittery,
Massachusetts,
Province of Maine,
a man waits
to read a shoulder in the rain –
Y The first letter
in a version of the game
exquisite corpse
any number of masters,
mistresses,
might play.
Maine Historical Society (MeHS)
Collection #35, Box 1, Folder 13
William Pepperrell Papers, 1705-1759
Pepperrell, Sir Wm., 1696-1759
MS00-151/152
Bill of Lading for Slave, 1719
Shipped by the Grace of God in good Order and well Conditioned by Benjamin Bullard
in and upon the good Ship called the Brigantine Sarah whereof is Master under
God for this present Voyage Cap.t John Morris and now riding at Anchor in the
Bay of Carlile and by God’s Grace bound for Piscatequa
to say One NegroWoman, on the proper Account and Risque
of the said Bullard, and go Consigned to M: Wiliam Pepperell
Merchant there
being marked and numbered as in the Margent, and are to be delivered in the like good Order and
well Conditioned, at the aforesaid Port of Piscatequa (the danger of the Seas only
excepted) unto the said William Pepperell
or to his Assigns, he or they paying the Freight for the said Goods Negro Fifty Shillings
with Primage and Average accustomed. In witness whereof the Master or Purser of the said Ship hath
affirmed to three Bills of Lading, all of this Tenor and Date; the one of which Bills being accomplished,
the other two to stand void: And to God send the good Ship to her desired Port in safety. Amen. Dated
in Barbados Aprill the 11: 1719
Mortality Excepted Jn Morris
Mark d with a
Yon ye right
Sholder
For this present Voyage
what reads something like prayer –
Shipped by the Grace of God
and by God’s Grace bound –
And to God send the good Ship in safety. Amen.
What reads in good Order
and Well Conditioned
One Negro Woman
in and upon the good
Sarah
One Negro Woman
now
riding
paying
by God’s Grace
bound
(the danger of the Seas only excepted)
The agent has a name Benjamin Bullard
The Ship has a name Brigantine Sarah
The Cap.t has a name John Morris
Water has a name Bay of Carlile
Departure has a name Barbados
Destination has a name Port of Piscatequa
The receiver has a name William Pepperell
His job has a name Merchant
The Goods have a name One Negro Woman
Cost of shipping has a name Fifty Shillings
The date has a name Aprill the 11: 1719
The Woman has a name Markd with a Y on ye right Sholder
For this present Voyage
the good Ship and the Goods
have a sex
have a Master
under God have (the danger of
the Seas –
Mortality Excepted
For this present Voyage
Sarah and One
Woman
being marked and numbered
(the very hairs numbered ye of more value sparrows)
And to God send the good to her desired Port
And to God send the Goods in Safety
to say
the good Ship Brigantine Sarah
to say
the said Goods Negro
One
Woman
with a right to
one
feminine
pronoun
(209 words, but one
feminine
pronoun)
penned only once
to sex a chunk
of floating wood.
About the Author
Catherine Sasanov is the author of the poetry collections Traditions of Bread and Violence, All the Blood Tethers, and Had Slaves, as well as the libretto for the theater work Las horas de Belén: A Book of Hours, commissioned by Mabou Mines. Poems written out of her current research into slavery in Colonial Massachusetts and its Province of Maine have been published in calibanonline 11 and Skidrow Penthouse 15. Others are forthcoming in the Fall 2014/Winter 2015 issues of Common-place, Salamander, and Skidrow Penthouse 17.
To read the next section of “Markd Y,” see Common-place, Vol. 15, Issue 2, Winter 2015.
