New Poem: An Enslaved Girl is Above All Else Human

Hi Reader✨

Taking a break here in the trenches; consumed with writing Headrag, book #2 and prequel to my debut, The Peach Seed. Here mainly to share a new poem I’ve been tweaking since August.You’ll find it at the end of this post, but also want to take y’all on a little trip inside the research that inspired the poem.

I’m immersed in 1829 Georgia, to flesh out my fictional character, Akunna Okoro Welé, the daughter of Malik and Ebelé, who was introduced in The Peach Seed. This was a heinous time in our country’s history. Due to psychopathic greed that drove an addiction to unpaid labor, the levels of cruelty enslavers devised to torture and control Black Americans go beyond beyond. I rely on meditation to help me get through the research.

I also rely on solid sources of original material, such as the work of the erudite Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents In The Life of a Slave Girl. She wrote under the nom de plume, Linda Brent, and poured her heart and soul into an intimate, raw, gripping account of how she survived the teeth of the Southern terror, to quote James Baldwin.

No spoilers here, but those of you who read The Peach Seed will recall the pivotal scene involving Akunna at the end of the ancestral story. I can only say here that her story continues in Headrag, hence my return to research into antiquity.

My Akunna was born in 1816 and Jacobs was born in 1813 or 1815, making them fact/fiction contemporaries. I get very excited finding such a beautiful alignment — pure gold!

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Grateful to Harriet Jacobs for giving the world this eternal classic which I highly recommend. All versions, including audio, are available, check your local library first.

Another invaluable source is David Walker’s Appeal, In Four Articles; To The Coloured Citizens of the World. Walker was born on Sept 28, 1796, and died at age 33. He was born to a free woman and an enslaved man, and the law at that time stated, that which is born follows the womb, so Walker inherited his mother’s free status. His Appeal was a clarion call for Black unity in the battle against slavery.

His world view no doubt influenced many great thinkers and social activists that followed him, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

Sad to say, due to the miseducation of American citizens, I was not familiar with this extremely iconic piece of U.S. history. Were you? I uncovered it when searching for events that took place in 1829, the year my Akunna turned 13 and began her journey into womanhood. Since both she and the Appeal were on the Georgia coast near Savannah weeks after the pamphlet was published, I’m excited to have their paths cross in Headrag.

Thanks for reading. Keep scrolling for the poem…

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Untitled

living with her fears and disdain
of men
of bondage
perhaps of her own will
and living inside of
—and completely unaware of—
her naivety
due to a universal lack of knowledge
of any world beyond the one she lives

an enslaved girl is
after all
a girl

like any free-born girl
from ivory towers to rough tenements
she was delivered into the world pure
with natural instincts toward things
that matter only to her

regardless of complexion
hair or height or stature
she is youth and opportunity and promise
and under untenable vices of violent greed and power
she walks an unjust path we can’t imagine

and yet
if she is to live
inside time that does not belong to her
she will cope in her own way

in spite of tyrannic limitations
once she chooses to live
and forge her inner path to womanhood
she can seek and know love
she can rejoice and despair in it
she can be hurt and know envy and worship
she can contemplate and plan
navigate and get lost
show spite and deference and be triumphant

because an enslaved girl is above all else
human.

©agj2025

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