Albert Hinckley

Miss Crandall's Boarding School for Young Ladies of Color,

Canterbury, Connecticut, 1833

Last Sunday, a white boy openly smiled at me

where I sat with my sisters at the back of the Baptist Church.

When the pastor spoke of the sin of slavery,

the white boy looked back with his eyebrows arched.

I could read his thoughts, but I dared not meet his glance,

for nothing must pass between us, not one chance

for gossip to pounce with glee on one shared smile.

No one must think of us as eligible girls.

Waylaid by ruffians as we reached the ford,

our wagon was overturned. Our sodden skirts

weighted and slowed us, but no one was hurt.

Splashing to me, his eyes looking truly scared,

that boy took my hand. "Let me help you, miss.

From this day forward, I am an abolitionist."

Marilyn Nelson,  The Cincinnati Review from Collins, B., & Lehman, D. (2006) The Best American Poetry, 2006 New York: Scribner Poetry