The Branded Hand, by Brian Johnstone

The Branded Hand of Captain Jonathan Walker sixth-plate by Southworth and Hawes, 1845. “This Daguerreotype was taken by Southworth Aug. 1845 it is a copy of Captain Jonathan Walker’s hand as branded by the U.S. Marshall of the Dist. of Florida for having helped 7 men to obtain ‘Life Liberty, and Happiness.’ SS Slave Saviour Northern Dist. SS Slave Stealer Southern Dist.” Source: Mass. Historical Society.

The Branded Hand
​
SS Slave Saviour Northern Dist. SS Slave Stealer Southern Dist. 
Inscription on reverse of photographic plate, 1845
 
They printed this in Florida,
a slave state still in forty-five,
its marshal with the power
to mark a man for life. Yet,
 
he can’t have lived for long
till someone in New England
passed comment on his scars,
desired that he submit again
 
to clamp his arm lest moving
spoil the photographic plate
and new technology distort
the marks that he displayed,
 
his palm extended, opened
to their lens. As it had been
to coals, to branding irons,
the double S that found him, 
 
in The South, slave stealer,
thief of someone’s property
he only saw as fellow men
in need. But, in The North,
 
a saviour offering the chance
for freedom crossing borders
meant to those who’d borne
the scars or more themselves
 
in multitudes, unrecorded,
never photographed, but
fixed, as is this single print,
in time, a record of its hand.

Brian Johnstone

Brian Johnstone’s poetry has appeared in Scotland and over 20 countries worldwide. He has published seven collections, most recently Dry Stone Work (Arc, 2014) and Juke Box Jeopardy (Red Squirrel, 2018), plus a prose memoir Double Exposure (Saraband, 2017). He is a founder and former Director of the StAnza Poetry Festival. http://www.brianjohnstonepoet.co.uk