Chapter CI – You shall see how a slave was made a man.

I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery.
- Excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), written by Frederick Douglass.

69th of Summer 5859
Inside the walls surrounding Casamonu Castle, Casamonu

I bloody hate being a slave
My own son was beaten to death with a stave
Freedom is the only thing that I crave
We are rotting in a state-wide open grave

As the first original music piece of the League rang out across the garden of Castle Casamonu, Ayomide found her eyes greeted by the morning sun, along with Shinasi sleeping right next to her. She remembered that after meeting in the castle, they had gone out to have a space that was a bit more private. A tent like this one was marginally better than the office of John Brown himself. Then a thing or two had happened while they celebrated victory in Casamonu. Ayomide noticed that her uniform (a bear pelt and gambeson) was on the floor along with her. She got dressed, her back aching from having danced around on the dirt floor of the tent, and got out of the tent to get some fresh air.

The mood was certainly joyous despite the somber songs. Usually those in Libertycave spent time anxiously worrying when a bunch of knights and adventurers would come up and burn their little experiment. The League felt invincible now that they had taken a castle. Not Ayomide however – the old man had a tendency to ruin her mood by reminding her of reality. Outside these walls were a population of people wishing that the “savages” inside would just get out already. Ayomide could already see a small crowd of citizens curiously peeking in through the gates of the castle. She’d compare them to a crowd in a zoo if she knew what a zoo was. “…you know what, I should have breakfast instead of worrying about these things.” she told to herself.

Ayomide suddenly felt someone’s hand pat her shoulder. “Breakfast? That’s an excellent idea!” It was Shinasi, his hair being in a greater mess than it usually is. “Morning, milady.”

“Morning, Shinasi. Call me ‘milady’ again and I’m cutting your tail off.”

Shinasi smirked. “Which one? I don’t see any tail on me right now… I wonder where you might have seen one if not your own tail?”

“Shut up, you cheeky bastard.” Ayomide gave him a peck on the cheek with a smile. “Save that talk for later. I’m hungry.”

“I see, hungry and grumpy.” He pointed to a pot of whatever that was cooking up nearby. “Let’s get some of whatever they’re making.”

“Sounds like a plan.” The pair walked to the cooking soldiers and sat right next to them. “Good morning, gents and ladies.” They were cooking wheat gruel with spring onions on top: not the most pleasant of dishes, but it was 5-star cooking worthy of emperors compared to the nothing they got as slaves.

As they waited for the pot to boil, conversation was happening between the soldiery. “You know, I used to live in a maize plantation. That stuff is way better than wheat, even if you just eat it straight off the cob.”

“Maize? I’ve never seen it. What does it look like?”

“It’s like wheat, but much bigger and juicier. And, the best part is, you can just eat it without having to prepare it. We used to sneak a few cobs into our gobs without the master noticing.”

“That sounds like the fruit they’d eat in the heavens…”

“It definitely is worthy of the gods; I’ll say that much.”

Ayomide turned to Shinasi. “Have you ever seen this maize in your adventures?”

“Sometimes merchants bought maize and sold it in Azdavay, but I have never had the chance to taste one.”

“I see… we should get some if we find it.”

By the time their idle conversation was done, the onion-flavored gruel was done. Everybody took a spoon and dug into the pot directly. Such was the way in Gemeinplatz, where washing separate plates would be too much of a bother. Food was food, a spoon was a spoon, and they were all very hungry so they dug in without thought of silly things like “germs”.

“You know, we could grow some maize here as well.” quipped the former slave from before “If you get me some seeds, I bet I could get a nice field going. I learnt all about farming the stuff back when I was working the fields.”

“You, good sir!” An old man’s voice came from the heavens, startling the diners. It was John Brown, who had been watching them from above in the castle. “Wait for a second there, I’m coming down!” Five minutes passed until the old man managed to drag his old bones down the winding corridors of the castle and make his way to the dining soldiers.

“What’s the haste, old man?” asked Ayomide. She extended a spoonful of gruel “Have some breakfast at the least.”

“I appreciate it, young lady, but I’ll use my own spoon. Before that, you!” He pointed at the maize man “You are the kind of person I’m looking for! What is your name, good sir?”

“What, me? I- they call me Maize, captain.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mister Maize.” Brown shook the man’s hand “What say you about owning your own field and gathering some of your friends to do some agriculture?”

“I wouldn’t oppose that captain, I’ve been in this one battle and I already want to lay down my weapons and settle down.” replied Maize. “I don’t know where we’ll get the land though. Don’t the noblemen own all the land?”

Brown pointed to a particularly tall tree nearby. Trees were his favorite tools in land reform. “We’ve been drafting plans with General Tubman for comprehensive land reform in Gemeinplatz. The first phase of that, delivering swift justice to the landowners who have committed crimes against humanity, is already underway. There won’t be many of them left after we’re done with the trials. The second phase is redistributing the empty land to those who’ll actually use it. Tubman told me about the Homestead Act, which gave me a few ideas. The third phase will be to help those who have already settled, but I’m going way too far ahead.”

The soldiers were surprised at their captain rambling on about land. They stood silent, trying to digest what had just been said to them. Finally, Maize spoke up “So, captain, you’re saying that I can have my own land?”

“If you’re willing to find a few people to join you in your homestead, then yes. I’ve been delaying all this back in Libertycave, but I think now is an appropriate time to think about peaceful manners for once.” He yawned. “Apologies, I stayed up late last night making revisions for the constitution… We have to make some changes now that we are in control of several distinct settlements. I’ll put matters of land reform up to a vote in today’s gathering of the council. You should find yourself some fellow farmers in the meantime. I’ll be going back to the castle to draft the Homesteading Act of Gemeinplatz.” With this, Brown left as quickly as he had come.

“What an odd man.” said Maize while watching Brown leave. “Is he always like this?”

“Yeah.” replied Ayomide. “I’ve been with him since the start, and the old man is an oddity even amongst the odd otherworlders.”

“He does his job though, so I can’t complain.” added Shinasi.

Ayomide nodded. “That much is true. Eccentric he may be, I doubt most of his crazy ideas are ever going to become reality, the old man did manage to make from nothing a force strong enough to take a castle.”

“Quite the busy man indeed…” murmured Maize, looking at the distance to the fields he’d soon cultivate.