His Name Was Gordon
A Villanelle
His name was Gordon, or Whipped Peter, as they say
Your pain captured forever in carte de visite
In the 21st Century, the whipping continues to this day
No longer do we run for the twisted leather to instigate the flay
But the wounds are just as deep, only implicit
His name was Gordon, or Whipped Peter, as they say
Your brothers and sisters of the future, verbally whipped, are never passé
The white Man continues to be complicit
In the 21st Century, the whipping continues to this day
The master’s still rule, their wickedness still downplayed
Now it’s anyone with dark skin, their demise on full exhibit
His name was Gordon, or Whipped Peter, as they say
America was built on this hate, carefully embedded, a racist parquet
The foundation of inequality, firmly rooted like a thicket
In the 21st Century, the whipping continues to this day
Its systemic, its institutional, its the American way
The song of damned, listen, its in the lyrics
His name was Gordon, or Whipped Peter, as they say
In the 21st Century, the whipping continues to this day
Gordon, or “Whipped Peter”, was an enslaved African American who escaped from a Louisiana plantation in March 1863, gaining freedom when he reached the Union camp near Baton Rouge. He became known as the subject of photographs documenting the extensive scarring of his back from whippings received in slavery. Abolitionists distributed these carte de visite photographs of Gordon throughout the United States and internationally to show the abuses of slavery.
Slavery has never gone away. If anything, we have grown it exponentially to affect others in our culture who have darker skin, or have a different belief system. We must truly ask ourselves, why must we continue on this path? Is this truly the America we want? And if so…
“What is the point of the struggle, if we continue to repeat the history of our heinous past? “
