Jasmine Clarke for The Atlantic Poem Jethro's Corner A poem for Sunday By Reginald Dwayne Betts February 9, 2025, 12 PM ET Share Save
I Maps
The corner of Ashmun & Grove & the sometimes
When the only evidence is a map; the disappearing
English of old: plat, a funky word that exists most
In memory, meant to make a plan or map of;
To draw to scale; to plot.
A man who cannot read coordinates can still plot
On his freedom. Imagine a rectangle on the oldest
Map in these nine squares of geography
Once called a wilderness.
Quinnipiac Pequot Paugussett
To plot freedom is to leave the words that matter
Written across everything you own that matters,
As in leave the names that your loves call you
All the places that you traverse.
As in, to name is to announce worthy of remembrance.
II Property
Some evidence of this life is always measured
By the weight of La Llorona's weeping.
Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro
Jethro Jethro Jethro owed his name. Left
This world owed his name. Who enters heaven
Owed their name? Who enters nameless?
Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Church of
Christ in New Haven, Connecticut, A.D. 1639–1914
Compiled by Franklin Bowditch Dexter
CATALOGUE OF MEMBERS, 1726–28
May 15. 875. Patience Mix (John) Alling *May, 1786
Daughter of Caleb and Mary (494); born March, 1699; wife of 1052.
876. Mary Atwater (Isaac) Dickerman *17—
Daughter of 421 and 338; born Dec., 1686; wife of 605.
877. Experience Perkins (David) Gilbert *May, 1748
Daughter of David and Deliverance (354); born Dec., 1699;
wife of 1111.
878. Jethro Luke (colored) *1760–61
Franklin knew his name enough to count
Him more than 3/5ths,
To list his surname & call him colored,
To be counted & named, the fourth member
Whose lineage included a slave ship.
The first non-European with a surname listed,
From an old English variant that sounds like luck,
Or happenstance, which in the land of cotton is a variant
For the word irony, for deliverance, think Luke
Of the Gospel, Luke the liberator, Luke as
English variant of Lucas, Lucius, bright, light
For a plot listed in the corner of a map.
Jethro Luke was colored, cast in shadows
Of manacles—or, in the parlance
Of Marx & Pareto: Jethro was owed,
Left owning little, beyond whatever he held
When his eyes searched the freedom of a night sky:
Brown coat … old great Coat … brown Jacket … white Jacket,
1 check shirt … black stocking … old ax … small tongs …
old gun barrel … great Bible … 8 round bottles … candle stick …
old mare … pair of oxen … plow share
III Freedom
Is one way to name this story.
Sometimes only maps be evidence.
In 1748, a corner mark confesses:
Jethro a Black man farmer.
Corner of Ashmun & Grove, a small city park
Cradling the Grove Street cemetery,
& all the freedom not permitted to rest there—
Jethro Ruth Mindwell Sampson Betty Joe
Jinny Mingo Sanders Sabina Sibyl
Phyllis Dinah Pero Sume Pompey Gad
Rose Rhoda Phyllis Pompey Williams Newport
Amasa Silva Cesar Rose Cato Leah Socoro
Peter Alice Little George Jack York Pressey
Polly Cesar Peter Simeon Joseph Bristol
Nando Jeff Congo Pompey Benjamin Cuff Phillis
Sharper Rogers Jack David Gardiner Dinah
Bet Alling Jack Geff Ruben Ruth Cambridge
Cuff Edwards Amy Belfast Fowler Primus
Tim Lenard Eli Harry Sue Daggett Gain Amey
Joe Place Jane Cesar Jin Daniel Thomas.
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