Held and Firmly Bound

In Held and Firmly Bound, Nathalie Anderson explores the implications of a family document – a statement of indebtedness between the races in pre-Civil War Charleston. How has a white Carolinian come to owe a substantial sum to Betsey Garrett, identified on the document as a free person of color? How today do we respond to the document’s resonating phrase, holding the debtor “held and firmly bound” to repay that debt? Anderson’s poems investigate variations on these themes, inviting readers to find reflected in these circumstances our own longing, terror, perplexity, magnanimity, and shame.