Chapter 3: A Slave's Story

Lunch was a thick potato soup and ham sandwiches from ham that was left over from Irma's welcome home party. We discussed our meeting during lunch and invited Hector and Camilla to stay and hear what Lenora had found out. Camilla declined our invitation due to a previous engagement. Hector's nephew was being christened at about the same time and Hector and Camilla were to be his godparents. They left for the church in the next town shortly after we finished lunch.

I continued working with the map after lunch. The scale of the map was not apparent and without clearly established reference points it was frustrating work. Some of the old shoreline seemed to match some of the lines on the topographic map marking where the water depth was ten feet. I looked at the shoreline using Google Earth to see if any additional hidden characteristics were visible but found nothing.

I used my digital camera to take pictures of both the pirate map and the topographic map and created two separate jpeg files on the computer. Then I used a lite version of a sophisticated photo editing software program that came with my printer to manipulate both prints until I thought they were the same relative size. I next edited the pirate map so that it was basically a line drawing over a transparent background. Then I began the detailed work of trying to overlay that drawing over the topographic map, using the similarities in the ten foot depth line as a reference point.

I had just started this delicate work when there was a soft knock on the door. Irritated I shouted, "Go away, I'm busy."

The door creaked open and Audra said, "You don't have to shout. I just wanted to let you know that Lenora is due here in 15 minutes. We've set it up to meet with her in the den because it's more comfortable. Elise went home to get Edward and will be back in a few minutes."

I said, "Sorry for snapping at you. I was trying to get a handle on the pirate map. It has been slow and frustrating work with the changes in the shoreline since that time. I didn't mean to take out my frustration on you."

Then thinking about our interrupted conversation earlier that morning I added, "I do love you, Audra. I know I sounded selfish this morning but I missed having you close to me. I didn't mean to take you for granted."

I was saying that as I moved towards her. I took her in my arms and hugged her to my body. Then I added, "I hope you can forgive me?"

Audra seemed to melt into my embrace as she looked up at me and answered, "There's nothing really to forgive. I've missed you as much as you've missed me. I hardly slept at all last night. I should have talked to you before just moving out of your bedroom."

Then Audra pushed away from my hug and said, "Don't be too much longer."

As soon as she left I closed out the program on the computer, saving the files in the process. I reached the bottom of the stairs just as the doorbell rang. It was Elise and Edward. Elise was carrying some more of the leftovers from the previous evening's party.

Irma helped Elise carry her bundle of goodies into the kitchen while I showed Edward into the den. After the preliminary greetings, Edward asked, "So have you had a chance to examine the map?"

I was just about to answer when I was interrupted by the annoying buzzing of the doorbell. I rose to answer it but before I could make it out of the den I heard Audra's voice say, "Won't you please come in? We've decided to meet in the den."

I met Lenora and Matthew at the door. After everyone moved into the den, Edward, who knew Matthew from his club, made the introductions. Matt, a jovial and pleasant fellow, must have been an excellent salesman sometime during his working life. He was quick to give Irma his condolences and began to reminisce about the long ago dinner parties that he remembered when she had been the hostess.

After everyone was relaxed and mutual introductions had been made we settled back into the comfortable overstuffed furniture ready for our meeting. Lenora was the center of attention as she had the ledger in her lap. As soon as everyone was comfortable she began, "Joe I just want to state publicly that the members of the Historical Society feel honored that you gave us the first opportunity to examine this treasure. It's certainly been a virtual storehouse of knowledge about a period of local history that we had very little detailed information on.

"To give you some background, let me just say that although all of us had read about the Underground Railroad in school no one had any idea that there was at one time a way station of that clandestine network operating in our area. From what we thought we knew about the history of that organization, most of the slaves followed existing roadways and waterways to Canada and to ultimate freedom. That meant that most of them moved up the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, followed large inland roads, or were smuggled aboard boats in major port cities of the south that took them to the northern states where they more openly made their way to Canada. Our town was never thought to have a part in this as it was never a port as such, or so we though. Anyway, let me tell you what we've discovered so far about this house.

"It appears that Sir Jeremiah Chadwicke was the first legal owner of the property itself. Sir Jeremiah was a British privateer of some note and the nephew of the sixth Duke of Northampton. During the colonial period privateers were a cheap way for great powers to control actual piracy and foreign commerce along the coastlines of their new colonies. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Frances Drake were two of the better known men who began their careers as privateers. Sir Jeremiah was less well known but very successful as a privateer. History tells us that he harassed French and Spanish traders and kept pirates at bay for a period of almost twenty years along this coast.

"Sir Jeremiah was awarded the property by the crown as a token of their appreciation for those illustrious years of service. It's not known why Sir Jeremiah wanted this property, but we think that his father fought a sea battle near this location where he defeated a small fleet of pirate vessels. This battle seems to have involved family honor. He may have suspected that this property was being used by those pirates as some sort of a rendezvous point or camp."

I interrupted at that point and asked, "So Sir Jeremiah built the first house here?"

Matt nodded to Lenora and said, "If I may?"

Lenora answered, "Certainly."

Matt continued, "Sir Jeremiah wasn't interested in settling in the new world. To him, the new world was a place he could make a name for himself and make a place for himself back in England. From what we do know, he retired and married well, the third cousin of the seventh Duke of Northampton, and lived out his life on his family's estate north of London. He died in 1732. The grant was a bit unusual, but his request stated that it was the center of a pirate settlement and he believed it to be a part of his due as a privateer. After the grant was awarded it lay untouched for almost twenty-five years. Sir Jeremiah's grandson, Joshua Black, was the first one to see the benefit of the grant.

"Joshua was an Anabaptist protestant who was an embarrassment and danger to his family. He was given the property in America to get him out of England and out of the way. Being anything other than a member of the Church of England was considered both heresy and, since the king was the leader of the church, treason at the time. Again, the records are sketchy but it is known that Joshua's family moved from England and settled and built the first home in this area about 1755."

Irma, who seemed to be hanging on Matt's every word, interrupted and said, "I never suspected that this house was anywhere near that old."

Lenora shook her head and quickly said, "Oh no, it's not. That was an earlier house and it is obviously long gone. We've never known exactly where that house was located."

Matt seemed a bit perturbed at the interruption but continued, "As I was about to say, Joshua Black settled here and later fought in the American Revolution. Unfortunately, he was on the losing side in that conflict. It's glossed over in history books but many settlers fought on the side of the crown during that conflict. The personal animosity between patriots and loyalists was extremely high. Many areas were fairly evenly divided with neighbors virtually at war with neighbors.

"When Joshua went off to join in the fighting as a loyalist some of the patriots in the next county, his nearest neighbors, took offense. To show their displeasure they rode over as a group in the middle of the night and burned his house to the ground. Fortunately they acted more civilized than some in similar circumstances, as they allowed his wife and children to leave the house before they burned it. Joshua was wounded and captured during the Battle of King's Mountain and was eventually paroled until the end of the war. After the war he and his family, along with many other loyalists, were resettled in Canada. In exchange he gave up his claim to the land, which reverted to the state and was considered repatriations."

Elise asked the next question, "So there is no connection between Joshua Black and this house then?"

Lenora smiled and answered, "Not as far as we know. Matt's area of study has been that earlier period and he insisted that we give you the full account of that history."

Matt immediate added, "If my guess is correct that original house was built close to the location of the later house. It was not unusual during that time to erect newer houses on the foundation of homes that were destroyed. It saved money and labor."

Irma spoke next and asked, "So who actually built this house?"

Lenora spoke this time. "That's where it gets interesting. Before we had this ledger, we had assumed the second house was also destroyed and the location lost to history as well. We do know that that second house burned to the ground in 1828. This ledger confirms that. It also confirms that almost immediately after that house was destroyed a third house was built over the same spot, being completed in 1831 or thereabout. Both the second and third houses were built by Eli Corban, a cotton merchant from New England. Eli had contacts with the owners of several of the large inland cotton plantations and bid on at least part of their harvest each year. There was a huge competition between the textile mills of New England and those in England itself. English merchants were formidable competitors. Eli felt that if he were located closer to the source of the valuable cotton he could get a jump on the traders from England. He was frustrated in that they always seemed to take delight in outbidding him by a penny or so a hundredweight on the bales of cotton at the wharfs in the large ports. He thought that the plantation owners would be willing to forego this small price difference if they didn't have to transport their cotton hundreds of miles to the large market ports.

"Eli purchased the land from the state and settled into this area in 1823 where he built the first house on this site. About five years later that house burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances. Almost immediately construction began on a new, much grander house. Construction of that house took almost five years. We wondered why construction took so long and now we know, thanks again to this ledger and seeing the old house itself.

"We also learned from paragraphs in this ledger that Eli's moving to this area was primarily motivated by his abolitionist leanings. It seems strange to me that a man such as Eli, who made his livelihood buying and selling cotton, a product of slave labor, was also actively involved in trying to end that slavery. It's obvious that part of the reason the house took five years to build was because of the technology built into the house to aid in hiding runaway slaves. He couldn't use local labor as he needed the expertise of the best craftsmen. He also needed craftsmen who were discreet and sympathized with his cause. Some of the construction costs were most likely provided by one or more of the abolitionist societies in the Boston area. This house was built to enable Eli to transport runaway slaves from nearby plantations, along with his cotton, over a thousand miles from here to the small towns in New England that were the destination for that cotton. Those towns were within a hundred miles of Canada, which as you know was the terminus of the Underground Railroad."

I couldn't believe that I was sitting surrounded by history. I commented, "You found out most of that from the ledger?"

Lenora was practically beaming, "Oh, much more than that. This book is a national treasure. I'm sure one day it will be cited in history books. It was only left behind because it was the work of a slave. I'm sure Eli used Willie's accounts in reports to the abolitionist societies in New England that supported his works here. We haven't even touched on some of the most important things in the ledger. This was mainly background, to show you the importance of this book. To have the book is one thing but to have located it in the actual house itself makes it so much more valuable. I don't think that there's another such a combination in the entire south."