I Am Perfectly Black

“Richard Low inspired my poem, I Am Perfectly Black when I read about him at the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Low was a blacksmith who freed himself on January 18, 1853. His enslaver, James B. Belt of Upper Marlboro, MD, posted a $100.00 reward for the capture of Low, whom he described as about 28, tall and stout, with a full suit of hair, a missing tooth, and perfectly black.”