Welcoming Remarks
My name is Amelia Ortiz and I would like to welcome you to our ceremony honoring Peg. The Witness Stones Project is a project where we dive deeper into an enslaved person’s life. This is the second annual project that has been at Holy Child and in New York as well. We take information about these people’s lives and turn them into a place where others can learn more about them. This year’s Witness Stones Project will be focused around Peg Lyon’s life.
Peg Lyon was a woman who was enslaved by the Lyons and the Merritt family. She was born around 1770, and had 7 children while being enslaved. All of them were boys: Plato, Anthony Jr., Charles, Solomon, Allen, Henry and Jack. Jack was sold away from Peg around 1796, when he was around three years old. Peg was emancipated in the year 1800.
Many enslaved people went through what Peg did. It must have been so hard for them to go through this all their life, while most of them were not emancipated like Peg was. I can’t imagine how it must have been for all the enslaved people of the United States and those around the world who are still enslaved. I can’t think how cruel someone had to have been to treat someone this way. I can’t even imagine how this was so close to, or where I live, in Rye & Portchester. It’s such a peaceful area that it’s hard to imagine such cruelty existing here. Today we remember Peg through this ceremony and the reflections of my classmates.
“Invisible” by Sophia Cantwell
I feel invisible
People see me, but they don’t talk
I work as hard as I can, but it’s not enough
I can’t figure out what’s going on, you and I know that this isn’t fair I will work this out
I will have faith
I can do this
I feel invisible
No one can see or hear me Can you hear me, God? Are you there?
Help me
I will get through this.
I let him go today
So sad
So bad
I want him back, My boy I won’t see him for a while
I miss him already
In my dreams
All in my imagination My heart
It’s cruel
My boy
My broken heart
It can be fixed
But I want him back soon He’s mine.
Not yours
Give him back to me
I want him back
I feel invisible
No one sees me
But I can see him
He might not be with me But I see him all the time He will forever be mine
I feel invisible
What Life Would Be Like by Kathryn Harrington
Imagine what life would be like
If every day
You had to go through hard, physical labor,
Too much for you to handle.
Imagine what life would be like
If your child was born
And then sold away from you
At such a young age
And forced to do work.
Imagine that feeling of despair
When you realize,
You’ll probably never see that child again.
Imagine what life would be like
Not being treated as a human being
But as property
That people could toss around to whoever they want, Whenever they want,
Wherever they want.
And you have absolutely no say
Whatsoever.
Getting sold to others
From others
Like a piece of furniture,
Not a human that has feelings.
Imagine what life would be like
If you had no rights
And couldn’t make decisions for yourself But others could.
You are controlled.
Trapped.
Confined.
Imagine what life would be like
Living like this every day.
Being forced to work,
Do whatever your master says,
Whether it is easy work
Or hard.
Imagine what life would be like
As a slave.
A Poem About Peg by Carina Lopez
Conceived
Spawned
brought up upon this world.
Thrown and trapped into this place of evil Surrounded by people blinded by hands of their own Misled into thinking their actions were okay Thinking “it’s for their own good”
It wasn’t.
It caused us trauma. Grief
Pain Suffering
But not for you No,
Your people are unable to understand our pain. Unable to comprehend what you made us go threw Because it gave you every benefit you could imagine. Sold and used like objects
I am not an object.
But still, I am thrown around.
Still their item
Theirs to be walked over and stepped on To be broken and to be thrown away You can’t change what you are.
No matter how much you try
I already was what I was.
I had a role to play.
To be detained into chains by a life I never knew
But my suffering hadn’t reached an end.
No
It had hardly just begun.
July 7, 1790
There I was.
Sold again
20 years of suffering
I guess it hadn’t been enough. Seven children
All abducted from my grasp
My children know your mother loves you. She holds you dear in her heart. Forever and always
Henry and Solomon, please forgive me
I never got the chance to see your face one last time. But please know
I have not forgotten you
There is never a day when you fail to cross my mind. I can not help but feel this feeling of sorrow and guilt. I remember you as I did my other children. Never forget that
because you are just as special
always remember, your mother loves you.
“To Know” by Olivia Michael
To know what It’s like to work all day and night
To know what It’s like to not be rewarded
To know what It’s like to not be able to put up a fight
I don’t want to know what it’s like
They were forced to know what it’s like
To know what It’s like to not have a voice
To know what it’s like to work for no price
She knew what it was like
They knew what it was like
To know what It’s like to have a “master”
To know what It’s like to try as hard as you can, but you’re still not going faster To know what it’s like to work ten times harder to get a home
To know what it’s like to have other people decide if you’re free
To know what it’s like thinking you’re all alone
No one wants to know what it’s like
They were forced to know what it’s like
To know what it’s like to not be able to provide for your child
The whole system was wild
I don’t want to know what it’s like
They had to know what it’s like
“Here” by Tami Ojo-Carons
Why am I here?
Stuck in an unfamiliar place
No friends…no family… no one
Why am I here in a place where I’m not a human but an object? Where no one values me
Where I am unseen
Why am I here being sold to someone else?
Someone I do not even know
Why am I here watching my child being taken away from me? One by one going to work for someone unknown
Even though I’m free I still work just as hard
Hard enough just to live a normal life
Even though it could never be normal
Why am I here in my final life able to see my children but one? Why?… why is my child not here?
Finally, I’m free but am
I truly free
With the burden I have to carry
Of all the hard work and suffering
Why am I here?
Why me?
A Reflection about Peg by Ali Scala
Peg
One name
Three letters
One amazing story that should be remembered
P — Perseverance
Perseverance is the ability to achieve something despite struggles that
you might face, and to have the courage to stand up for what you believe in. Peg overcame many challenges throughout her life including her three year old son, only THREE years old being sold and having to work until his twenty fifth birthday. Peg was one of the many enslaved people around the New York/ Connecticut area at this time, and was bought and sold just like a piece of property. Despite this, and many other struggles as well, Peg wanted freedom and was emancipated on April 12, 1800.
E — Empowerment
When we tell Peg’s story, we are empowered to learn the hard history
of the past, and to build a better and brighter future. When we tell her story, we gain a deeper understanding about the unfairness and cruelty of slavery. We also get the opportunity to pass on these stories and knowledge, so that people don’t avoid the parts of history that are hard to imagine, rather accept and acknowledge them.
G — Gumption
Gumption means to be determined and full of courage. Peg was pretty
much the definition of this word, working hard to afford land for her and her seven sons. In conclusion, Peg’s story is one that should be passed on, so we as a community can remember and honor the important people and stories of the past.
Poems about Peg by Ryleigh Wright
The enslaver worked the life out of the enslaved Earning the reward for their labor
Slaves tossed to shrivel into bits
While they preached “Thou shall love thy neighbor”…? Neighbor can not be defined by skin
So let this new era begin
Where we uplift and applaud
For our differences and flaws
But not just to find a resolution
But because at the end of the day
We’re all human
And let not the enslaved of the past be forgotten For we are the past, and without it, we are nothing
Words are helium
Every pin that she takes
Is strategically placed
By the enslavers trying to deflate her
Hoping that she will surrender
The roof kept her from rising up
But she rose
The trees kept her
But she rose
And up she will go
Because we can not forget her soul
The way she was sold
Working in the freezing cold
She rose
Continue she will rise
As we give her the gas
Knowing that she’ll pass Distance between us? lightyears As we tell her story
Knowing that she lived right here Rising…
Suffering
Lots of
Ages
Viewed and Endured which Robbed
Years
