Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels - Softcover

KEVIN YOUNG is the author of six previous collections of poetry and the editor of Library of America's John Berryman: Selected Poems, the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets anthologies Blue Poems and Jazz Poems, and Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers. His book Jelly Roll was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Paterson Poetry Prize, and For the Confederate Dead he won the 2007 Quill Award for poetry. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is currently the Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing and curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University in Atlanta.

Chapter 1

Book-Keeping

Lomboko, Sierra Leone

1. Expenses Out.

Cost of Tecora, a 90-ton schooner $ 3,700 00

Fitting out, sails, carpenter and cooper's bill 2,500 00

Provisions for crew and slaves 1,115 00

Wages advanced to 18 men before the mast 900 00

" " to captain, mates, boatswain, steward, cook 440 00

200,000 cigars and 500 doubloons, cargo 10,900 00

Clearance and hush-money 200 00

2. Expenses Home & In Havana.

Captain's head-money, at $8 a head $ 1,746 00

Mate's ", Captain and Crew's wages 3,811 00

Government officers, at $8 per head 1,736 00

My commission on 217 slaves, expenses off 5,565 00

Consignee's commissions 3,873 00

217 slave dresses, at $2 each 434 00

Extra expenses of all kinds, say 1,200 00

3. Returns.

Value of vessels at auction $ 3,950 00

Proceeds of 217 slaves 77,469 00
Total returns $ 81,419 00

"expenses 38,120 00
Net profit $ 43,299 00

BUZZARD.

And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened

the window of the ark which he had made:
And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until

the waters were dried up from the earth.

--Genesis 8:6-7

Exodus

Gabriel, Escalastio, Desiderio,-in the seas beneath

the States, names new & Christian fell around you

like the lash. Before slavery, ten suns from water open

as a wound, you say you belonged to nothing

but home. Your back bore only spirit's teeth, scars

that meant manhood. Such rites of passage

protected little:-with in one moon you fared
no better than a slaver's shifting cargo of looking

glasses, olives. Out of boredom or freedom

of movement, the crew took a poker from under bitter

plaintains,-carved Captain's f into Cabin Boy's shoulder.

Parched as you were, would you have sipped the rum

& gunpowder smeared in that wound to make sure

it would brand? A few mad, swollen tongues caught
the saltwater Cabin Boy's good arm tossed. Was it

sanity drove cousin Fu-li to edge over the casket

of fresh water, lend it his own throat? Catching

him wet-lipped, Captain's men fed home

the whip:-even now you can hear his skin part,

can tell how much his body was water, how much

spine was book, just asking to be opened, read.

Covey

Hijacked on The War Road, my birth

name, each sun I walked in Africa

was a forgetting, each step a bird

song gone. Three men stole me:-a boy,

a bad dice roll, a debt traded for guns

& doubloons. I was to be like you, a slave

bowing to fields of sugar, a rebel raising
cane,-only a man-o-war turned my slaver

around, set me to work in Freetown

a servant. Anglicans christened me a small riot

of guineas,-half-Brit, half-bird, as Covey I served

Her Majesty's Buzzard, feeding off ships caught

& replanted, as I'd been. New World, eagle shore,

your abolitionists found me by counting:-one
versed in classics scoured the docks, parroted eta,

fili, wafura to every black face. Other hands laughed,-

to me those words held home, meant one, two, five,

free. From the wings I emerged:-step right up ladies

& Africans, feast your eyes on this Most Divine

Two-Tongue Man! Once Kaw-we-li, now Scavenger

of the Word, voice covering yours, I circle above.

Misericordia

Havana, Cuba

I hear you can buy a man

there easy as a name,-just check

the bottoms for red, telling

sores, examine teeth for words

like runaway, no. Your titles may

already bring you Spanish wine, or

quadroons in New Orleans gambling
halls, but Havana holds too many

Dons & men named for saints to take

such currency. Far off in the dark

continent, bars translate into goods,

a man's height in cotton, even kegs

of rum only fit for those negro backs

that taste the cat. This island speaks
only silver. One fifteen-dollar-a-head hand-

shake with Governor General can turn all

of Africa into ladinos, slaves born in Cuba

decades ago. The right signature

can make the youngest girl nineteen,

Christian, yours:-anything but white

or willing.

Cut-Up

Stop me if you've heard this one

before:-on a low, long, big black

boat, hunger follows you like sharks

along the Middle Passage. Oceans trail

blood & overboard brothers. You know

little about men who live at sea,

these white termites hoarding crumbs
for winters which never arrive. You

are the grasshopper men, locusts kept legless,

silent. Sold. Three days from Cuba, some body

steals over to Celestino, the rationing potato-

headed Cook, asks what does this routine of chains

mean? The griffin looks about for his master

& father, then leans closer to let you in
on some thing. Get this:-you'll be sliced, salted

& canned like laughter. His finger runs slow

across his neck, his body suddenly a tongue

even you can understand,-a joke on no body

but you. Here's a killer:-know why cannibals

don't eat clowns? Taste too funny. Your faces

never break, stay black as comedy.

Advent

You tell me you never answer to lion

or boy, tho the papers have called

you Jinqua, Singbe, Cinquez,

Sinner. You stay cold as ever

in your naked cell, refusing the grey

robes this Union wished you in.

I have seen enough heads read lately
to know yours will make even fools

famous, hands translating your body

in lectures, from podiums, where such

an African skull, well-formed, is seldom

to be seen-doubtless in other circumstances

an honor to his race. At sea, your masters

must have dreamt that crown would buy
them islands. They named you Joseph, step-

father to the Lord, slept & saw you bring Mary,

laboring, on a mule. How could they have known

your son across the sea whose name you confide

means God? They woke to the sounds of Xmas,

your cane knife opening the heads of lords

& mulattoes, like wisdom, molasses beneath stars.

Questioning

Who among you knew the Crew

split after seeing Captain's head

spill open? Who heard the lashings

come undone, or saw the gripe

unhooked, the lifeboat slip silent

over the side? While you knived

who saw the scar their cutter
made in water, slashing a wake

toward horizon, unseeable

shore? Who beheld the Christ

in your master's mouths as they watched

the night grow arms & strike? Did you

swab the sticky deck? Count casualties

like the black stars drown in?
Did you expect to meet ardency,

that wanting of wind? Who supposed

the stern would slow, your seizing

break, or guessed your masters,

while you slept, sailed for Providence?

And who let your dead launch

overboard, thrown like a voice?

Friendship

During the mutiny your Masters must have heard

Captain & his mulatto Messboy go down the way

such family should, fighting, each splash the black wax

sealing an envelope. If it may please the court:-tho hidden

behind hungry barrels, the traders still ordered that boy,

Antonio, to toss you bread & allegiance. You found

your owners scared as stowaways on that boat baptized
Friendship,-bound them in chains to give a taste

of a slave's thirst. For days the fools refused to believe

property could be so bold. It was as if the beds they'd made

love to, their favorite muskets, grew blue with waiting

& woke. Unvexed, they wrote strange script to hand

any ships chanced upon; you sunk such letters

of death, unswayed. You say you sent anchors over
the same way, hoping to cease your drift, then turn round

toward family. When your sunburnt enemy called the sea

too deep to stop, you dove down far as lungs & doubt allowed,

emerged only with handfuls of blind, angelic fish. Little choice

but spare the cretins to navigate by scorpion, twin:-let them

steer your fellowship of thieves, give them all the water

they please, free them from irons, only thing ever they shared.

Sightings

Having freed yourselves you wandered

like a Jew:-least that's how them Spaniards

saw you,-liable, bloodied, & without Christ

to save. By day, under watch, the Dons

steered sunward; nights they reversed west

& lied, left your inquisitions unmoored

no matter what your threat. You saw
horizon & hoped it home, landed to fill

your casks,-even then sensing this shore unsafe.

Nosing north, hungry, you ate from the hold

raisins & jaundice & wine. Some ate only angels,

died. Ships with names like lovers,-Emmeline,

Blossom-sighted & tried boarding your bandaged

ship, balked at the muskets, the black you brandished.
Rumors like scurvy spread:-up & down the coast,

Custom Collectors warn of your ghost ship,-

The Flying African. One night you spotted a halo,

corposant, ringing the broken mast. San Elmo,

the Spaniards whispered, crossing themselves double:-

a sign. After, in halcyon, yellowed, even you began

to believe,-your eyes grown wide & without white.

Washington

You harbored the ship like a criminal, stole

ashore hungry. Even eastward of Providence

reports had drifted of the strange spook

ship:-most thot you pirates, skin

the flag you never flew,-black covering skulls

& bones, crossed. When you signed for food,

dogs, folks drew water polite as blinds, then
called the pigs. Only Green, freelance captain,

would trade you goods. Wanted to turn you in

to gold,-stopped since you promised more

on board. While he haggled, the Washington found

your ship flagless, drunk with sea moss,-

covered in rent bags & one recent corpse.

Lieutenant added it up:-slaves & a fortune
in salvage. He sent you to the 3-ft. hold where Cinque

filled his belt with gold, leapt over the side. Sank. Swam out

of reach, an hour, while the brig searched. Drowning

the necklaces, surrendered himself. Reeled in, manacled,

Cinque pictures the necktie party the G-men got planned,-

I shall be hanged, I think, every day,-tongue flapping

a weather-beaten banner, pants full of freedom, soilt.

Experiment

Lieutenant swore you in on board

the Experiment, reading your Spanish names

like charges against you:-Paschal, Santaria,

Saturnio, Hipiloto. The right to remain

et cetera. Anything you say is in Mendi, mute

to them. I can only imagine & read what

the Spaniards you'd saved, sworn in, said:-
These chattel were born in Cuba, bozales bred

to be sold, not stolen. Recollect

who struck me but not the man saved me.

Had no wish to kill any of them, Lieutenant,

prevented them from killing each other. Asleep

I saw the whole thing. Did not know how many

days we were out. We kept no reckoning.
Soon you Mendi will holler with speech

of your own, saved like a dollar

or a soul:-Can I get a witness? Hands

on stacks of Bibles, you'll plea bargain

God. Leaping like faith,

O how you'll testify:-

Chariot, swing low, my, my.

Greeting

When we meet you grip my hand

as you drown,-say you never knew skin

even brown, could be so pale, polite.

You feel & fear you'll be turned in

side out. Jail's a far cry from those moons,

thirsting, you burnt up on ocean:-here

days dole sun stead of water.
Before stolen & set sail I never knew

any hue but the one you still wear,

that carbon some fools once tried

scrubbing off me at sea. I've since grown

used to being a shipman:-sea dog,

first mate, the chaste black sheep.

Shed more of me than you could
know. Boys, I been so long

upon the moors I've begun to feel

like one,-some poor painted Shake-

speare speaking tongues

not his own. If ever you read

my mind, or palm, you'd know this

shade hides a hot place, eclipsed.

Blackmarket

In the square vendors hawk your tale:-

the Africans are the lions of the day,

well-fed. Men fence colored etchings

of blacks opening the Captain's head.

In that market called flea, you fetch

a handsome fee,-ready to frame. Your names

hit The Bowery stage before you take
the stand, actors in cork putting on the mutiny

as musical:-Zemba Cingues, the savage

noble; Cudjo, a deformed Dumb Negro;

the fair damsel Inez, necessary, invented.

The Black Schooner rakes in thousands

while you wait captive as an audience

of assassins. In this market called free
you cost one-shilling to see. The whole county flocks

to watch you at play, a flea circus somersetting

the prison Green. Warden claims the proceeds

for your bail & newspaper reviews of jail

go well:-They crouch like tailors, teeth like stars

in inky faces, black headlines blare. No one dares

how you still may be sold, stolen like a scene.
Tank

The abolitionists seek to school you

like fish. One cell over the girls weep,

share their grave-narrow bed. This Jail

Cinque wants to say, is almost worst

than the Drink. Solitary is one tank

without the think, his body

only evidence. The other men unwell,
sick as home. Days later, let out with sun,

they roll cartwheels in the yard

to tell they're alive. In the pen, still

fettered, Cinque stays under surveillance

as if water,-the kind that gathers

on the brain. He's going down a third time

but no one sees him wave.
Who wouldn't want to join Davey Jones,-

he musta been black with a name

like that-little wonder he went overboard,

locked up drum-tight. Still, it hushed us all

when Foone followed suit:-a strong swimmer

by all accounts, he waded out with his weighted-

down heart, never saw our shore again.
Eyetooth

Seems like every day another curator

or ivied student comes to draw

the captives like blood, render them

in profile,-varnished, unreadable coins.

Today the leech doctors decide Konoma

isn't cannibal, that his bucked out

& filed teeth crave nothing besides
English. New Haven dailies report:-

one said to belong to the man-eating

Caronmanche tribe denies, as well

as we could understand, ever tasting

human flesh. His quick tongue, not Mendi,

confuses even me. He points out d...