MOSANA (THE UNION) - PART XVII
EPISODE 17
Three years had passed since Governor Geary had called a truce between the two warring parties. But the war was far from over. And in that time, John Brown had been far from idle. He spent those three years regrouping, fundraising, planning, and building support for a more ambitious and revolutionary mission. After the Battle of Osawatomie, Brown realised that guerrilla warfare alone wouldn’t end slavery. In 1856, he had fled Kansas with a $3,000 bounty on his head and returned east, believing he needed a larger plan to strike at the heart of slavery.
So he got to work. Brown traveled across New England and the Midwest, seeking funds and weapons. He connected with and sought help from the Secret Six, who agreed to finance his plans. The Secret Six were a group of wealthy and influential abolitionists who preferred to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. They couldn’t, in any way, be associated with the movement, or it would jeopardize their places in society, and not to mention, cut off much needed resources for the movement. I didn’t know who they were. But they were true to the cause, and supplied John Brown with much needed resources.
Along with Brown’s plans, I also learnt from the Society that other abolitionist organisations like the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Delaware Abolition Society had begun similar programs, where they infiltrated slave plantations with sleeper cell slaves to collect information. I was ecstatic. Even though the MacGregor plantation was devoid of gist, I was happy that there were more like me helping the cause. The movement was growing.
I remember when I read Brown’s ‘Provisional Constitution’. That morning, Sue had caught me reading a message from the Society - a message I now knew was being sent and seen by hundreds of sleeper cell slaves like me across the South. I had been so engrossed, I didn’t see her come up behind me and snatch the paper out of my hand. Turns out she had been called my name several times.
“Girl!”
I jumped, my heart pounding, then slowing as I realised it was only Sue. She couldn’t read and wouldn’t know what was in the letter.
“Get yo’ head outta dem books and come with me to the store,’ she said, sounding cross.
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered hurriedly. “Sorry,” I added as an afterthought, hoping to appease her.
Sue threw the paper to the ground, and I waited for her to turn around before I picked it up. I couldn’t risk anyone finding it.
I followed Sue to town to help her with grocery shopping, and I saw snippets of the Provisional Constitution published in the paper. I got a smack or two in the head for standing by and reading it through a shop window. Sue had to call me to order so many times, I wondered if she’d say something to Master.
She couldn’t understand my excitement. She wouldn’t.
If Brown was writing up constitutions, it meant something big was in the works. The Constitution basically established a temporary government for liberated enslaved people in the South. It abolished slavery, created a just society, gave equal rights to all races, and people of African descent were granted full citizenship. Full citizenship! Equal rights! Brown wasn’t just an insane extremist, he had a full-on revolutionary agenda. I could kiss the man!
In May of 1858, we heard of Brown’s secret constitutional convention in Chatham, Canada, with about 34 Black and white delegates. When I heard they adopted his provisional constitution and elected officials, I raced inside the house, found Flint, and hugged him. I saw his eyes widen and the confused look on his face, and I just muttered a “sorry” and fled the house with the same rush of wind I had used in coming in.
But I was so excited. I couldn’t tell Flint anything of course, but I think he suspected I was up to no good by the look of happiness on my face. He tried to pry it out of me many times, but I wasn’t stupid. I wanted to tell him, but the stakes were far higher here than they were at the Russell Manor. We were friends again, but that didn’t mean that we were on the same side of things.
The fight between the pro-slavers and anti-slavers reached an all-new high in the winter of 1858. Apparently, John Brown started causing trouble again with his anti-slave catcher militia as he rounded up slaves from almost every settlement he could find and sneaked them off as far north as he could go. He and his militia were also rounding up pro-slavers… and killing them.
I knew the Society was having trouble with his methods, but I admired the man and his brazen ways. It was time we fought fire for fire. Admittedly, it made escaping more difficult, as most Slave states now had militia consisting of slave catchers and bounty hunters that patrolled the borders more frequently than ever. But I didn’t care. I would have given anything to raise arms with the fearless John Brown in battle.
The state was still after Brown. The newspapers covered him at the slightest provocation, and I drank it all in, anticipating his next move. It came in a letter from the Society.
Essentially, the letter explained in code that Brown would be making a move on Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Harpers Ferry was a federal armoury and a critical point in the fight between good and evil in America at the time. Should Brown be able to take it with his militia, it would tip things significantly in our favour. So, I waited.
And waited.
But days turned into weeks, and I heard nothing. No news of his valour, or even rumours about any goings-on anywhere in Virginia. I almost wrote back to the Society to ask what the issue was but decided to shrug it off. It was probably more dangerous to write about such things, even in code. Besides, it was possible that Brown was just laying low.
Eventually, it was revealed that the Harpers Ferry attack was experiencing delays because one of Brown’s men had leaked parts of the plan, fearing it was too reckless. This gave me pause. Brown moved with the most fearless of men. Men who had seen battle and who had followed him on the most brazen of missions. If one of his own was too scared to execute, it meant the Harpers Ferry mission was bigger than I thought. I wasn’t privy to the details, all I knew was that there was supposed to be an attack. The reason the Society communicated it was because after the victory there, John would move through plantations and distribute weapons to slaves to aid their escape from their masters. It wasn’t likely that he would pass through Kansas as it didn’t border Virginia. Still, it excited me to no end as I anticipated the news of slaves fleeing en masse.
I came into the kitchen to ask Sue if I could accompany her to the market the next time she was going when I spotted Angelia. She was inspecting Sue’s work and looking around like she expected to find something wrong with the place. The moment I spotted her, I stopped and turned abruptly to go back the same way I’d come. But Angelia had seen me.
“Sarah.” Her voice was commanding, and it grated my ears.
I turned to her slowly, like a malfunctioning ballerina music box. The smile on her face didn’t make me feel better. She knew I had been trying to avoid her and she relished it. She probably thought I now feared her, but the truth was I avoided her because every time I saw her, I had to stem the murderous rage that rose in my gut. The last time I had felt this much hate was for my father. I had never forgotten the day she made Flint flog me, and every day I thought of ways to pay her back.
“You wanted to see me?” she asked in a mockingly sweet voice, knowing quite well I hadn’t come into the kitchen for her.
I forced the bile in my throat down and answered as politely as the poison on my tongue would allow, “No, ma’am. I came to talk to Sue about dem groceries. But I see you talking to her. I can come back later.”
I turned again to leave, but the witch stopped me again. “Oh that’s alright. You can see her now. I’m done here.”
With that, she walked out of the kitchen, making sure to brush against me, still with that sickly smile on her face.
My eyes followed her as she walked up to the house, deadly ideas roiling about in my brain on how to end her. But my body remained calm. Sue must have felt my internal warfare because she came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
I forced a smile on my face and asked Sue. “So when are you going to the market?”
I wanted to check on any messages from the society. It had been more than a month since they informed me about the reason for the delays in the impending Harper Ferry attack. There should have been more information by now.
While Sue did her shopping, I snuck away to the post office and retrieved the unmarked letter that the Society always left with the messenger boy. The boy wasn’t a Society operative; he was just someone who made an extra few bucks to hold unmarked letters and give it to anyone who came for it.
When I opened the letter from the Society, my eyes almost fell out of their sockets. Things were afoot. Turned out Brown had changed his strategy. Instead of using the weapons he would get from the armoury at Harpers Ferry to free slaves, he was going to free slaves to join him in his attack on the armoury.
And on the list of the plantations to be liberated of their slaves, was the very same plantation I was on.
War was coming to the MacGregor plantation.
Three years had passed since Governor Geary had called a truce between the two warring parties. But the war was far from over. And in that time, John Brown had been far from idle. He spent those three years regrouping, fundraising, planning, and building support for a more ambitious and revolutionary mission. After the Battle of Osawatomie, Brown realised that guerrilla warfare alone wouldn’t end slavery. In 1856, he had fled Kansas with a $3,000 bounty on his head and returned east, believing he needed a larger plan to strike at the heart of slavery.
So he got to work. Brown traveled across New England and the Midwest, seeking funds and weapons. He connected with and sought help from the Secret Six, who agreed to finance his plans. The Secret Six were a group of wealthy and influential abolitionists who preferred to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. They couldn’t, in any way, be associated with the movement, or it would jeopardize their places in society, and not to mention, cut off much needed resources for the movement. I didn’t know who they were. But they were true to the cause, and supplied John Brown with much needed resources.
Along with Brown’s plans, I also learnt from the Society that other abolitionist organisations like the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Delaware Abolition Society had begun similar programs, where they infiltrated slave plantations with sleeper cell slaves to collect information. I was ecstatic. Even though the MacGregor plantation was devoid of gist, I was happy that there were more like me helping the cause. The movement was growing.
I remember when I read Brown’s ‘Provisional Constitution’. That morning, Sue had caught me reading a message from the Society - a message I now knew was being sent and seen by hundreds of sleeper cell slaves like me across the South. I had been so engrossed, I didn’t see her come up behind me and snatch the paper out of my hand. Turns out she had been called my name several times.
“Girl!”
I jumped, my heart pounding, then slowing as I realised it was only Sue. She couldn’t read and wouldn’t know what was in the letter.
“Get yo’ head outta dem books and come with me to the store,’ she said, sounding cross.
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered hurriedly. “Sorry,” I added as an afterthought, hoping to appease her.
Sue threw the paper to the ground, and I waited for her to turn around before I picked it up. I couldn’t risk anyone finding it.
I followed Sue to town to help her with grocery shopping, and I saw snippets of the Provisional Constitution published in the paper. I got a smack or two in the head for standing by and reading it through a shop window. Sue had to call me to order so many times, I wondered if she’d say something to Master.
She couldn’t understand my excitement. She wouldn’t.
If Brown was writing up constitutions, it meant something big was in the works. The Constitution basically established a temporary government for liberated enslaved people in the South. It abolished slavery, created a just society, gave equal rights to all races, and people of African descent were granted full citizenship. Full citizenship! Equal rights! Brown wasn’t just an insane extremist, he had a full-on revolutionary agenda. I could kiss the man!
In May of 1858, we heard of Brown’s secret constitutional convention in Chatham, Canada, with about 34 Black and white delegates. When I heard they adopted his provisional constitution and elected officials, I raced inside the house, found Flint, and hugged him. I saw his eyes widen and the confused look on his face, and I just muttered a “sorry” and fled the house with the same rush of wind I had used in coming in.
But I was so excited. I couldn’t tell Flint anything of course, but I think he suspected I was up to no good by the look of happiness on my face. He tried to pry it out of me many times, but I wasn’t stupid. I wanted to tell him, but the stakes were far higher here than they were at the Russell Manor. We were friends again, but that didn’t mean that we were on the same side of things.
The fight between the pro-slavers and anti-slavers reached an all-new high in the winter of 1858. Apparently, John Brown started causing trouble again with his anti-slave catcher militia as he rounded up slaves from almost every settlement he could find and sneaked them off as far north as he could go. He and his militia were also rounding up pro-slavers… and killing them.
I knew the Society was having trouble with his methods, but I admired the man and his brazen ways. It was time we fought fire for fire. Admittedly, it made escaping more difficult, as most Slave states now had militia consisting of slave catchers and bounty hunters that patrolled the borders more frequently than ever. But I didn’t care. I would have given anything to raise arms with the fearless John Brown in battle.
The state was still after Brown. The newspapers covered him at the slightest provocation, and I drank it all in, anticipating his next move. It came in a letter from the Society.
Essentially, the letter explained in code that Brown would be making a move on Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Harpers Ferry was a federal armoury and a critical point in the fight between good and evil in America at the time. Should Brown be able to take it with his militia, it would tip things significantly in our favour. So, I waited.
And waited.
But days turned into weeks, and I heard nothing. No news of his valour, or even rumours about any goings-on anywhere in Virginia. I almost wrote back to the Society to ask what the issue was but decided to shrug it off. It was probably more dangerous to write about such things, even in code. Besides, it was possible that Brown was just laying low.
Eventually, it was revealed that the Harpers Ferry attack was experiencing delays because one of Brown’s men had leaked parts of the plan, fearing it was too reckless. This gave me pause. Brown moved with the most fearless of men. Men who had seen battle and who had followed him on the most brazen of missions. If one of his own was too scared to execute, it meant the Harpers Ferry mission was bigger than I thought. I wasn’t privy to the details, all I knew was that there was supposed to be an attack. The reason the Society communicated it was because after the victory there, John would move through plantations and distribute weapons to slaves to aid their escape from their masters. It wasn’t likely that he would pass through Kansas as it didn’t border Virginia. Still, it excited me to no end as I anticipated the news of slaves fleeing en masse.
I came into the kitchen to ask Sue if I could accompany her to the market the next time she was going when I spotted Angelia. She was inspecting Sue’s work and looking around like she expected to find something wrong with the place. The moment I spotted her, I stopped and turned abruptly to go back the same way I’d come. But Angelia had seen me.
“Sarah.” Her voice was commanding, and it grated my ears.
I turned to her slowly, like a malfunctioning ballerina music box. The smile on her face didn’t make me feel better. She knew I had been trying to avoid her and she relished it. She probably thought I now feared her, but the truth was I avoided her because every time I saw her, I had to stem the murderous rage that rose in my gut. The last time I had felt this much hate was for my father. I had never forgotten the day she made Flint flog me, and every day I thought of ways to pay her back.
“You wanted to see me?” she asked in a mockingly sweet voice, knowing quite well I hadn’t come into the kitchen for her.
I forced the bile in my throat down and answered as politely as the poison on my tongue would allow, “No, ma’am. I came to talk to Sue about dem groceries. But I see you talking to her. I can come back later.”
I turned again to leave, but the witch stopped me again. “Oh that’s alright. You can see her now. I’m done here.”
With that, she walked out of the kitchen, making sure to brush against me, still with that sickly smile on her face.
My eyes followed her as she walked up to the house, deadly ideas roiling about in my brain on how to end her. But my body remained calm. Sue must have felt my internal warfare because she came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
I forced a smile on my face and asked Sue. “So when are you going to the market?”
I wanted to check on any messages from the society. It had been more than a month since they informed me about the reason for the delays in the impending Harper Ferry attack. There should have been more information by now.
While Sue did her shopping, I snuck away to the post office and retrieved the unmarked letter that the Society always left with the messenger boy. The boy wasn’t a Society operative; he was just someone who made an extra few bucks to hold unmarked letters and give it to anyone who came for it.
When I opened the letter from the Society, my eyes almost fell out of their sockets. Things were afoot. Turned out Brown had changed his strategy. Instead of using the weapons he would get from the armoury at Harpers Ferry to free slaves, he was going to free slaves to join him in his attack on the armoury.
And on the list of the plantations to be liberated of their slaves, was the very same plantation I was on.
War was coming to the MacGregor plantation.
----------------------------
Whew!
No notes today. Can't wait for next week!
Tell a friend!
xoxo,
Love
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