Early the next morning, we woke up and resumed work as usual, but this time around, with a renewed spirit, a spirit of rebellion and determination to be free. The morning sun danced down fiercely on our bare backs and burned us with merciless vigor, forcing us to sweat more than normal. We were beginning to see our shadows with our naked eyes under the hot piercing sun.
But luckily for us, no white man was with us and we used this opportunity to communicate our plans to our fellow slaves. They supported the notion for an independent black nation. Our plot was spreading like a wild fire among the slaves.
One of the many factors that made it possible for us to communicate freely without being caught was the use of our local language. We communicated in English to the ethnic groups with another dialect and this helped a lot. Within three days, all the slaves were aware of the plan and it was egged on by everyone.
Since everyone was conscious of the plan, the next move was the choosing of warlords who would carry out the role of soldiers and defend us during the campaign. Self-defense was very mandatory and we didn’t have weapons, what would be our fate if we’re conquered? And how were we to get weapons to carry out the campaign we were about to embark on?
These types of campaigns were always bloodier than we might even imagine.
During war blood is shed, people are killed, bones are broken, bodies are destroyed, women are raped, children are neglected and eventually converted to child soldiers. Sometimes they are killed by starvation or a bullet or by the brutal soldiers of the enemies who knew no mercy during war.
War is a destroyer of families, an agent of death and starvation but were we ready to take this chance? What will happen to us all if we lose the campaign? What will happen to our next generation if we are conquered? Is this a path we must choose?, a path of life and death?
All these and many more were running through my mind that I didn’t even notice when Boris sat close to me under the temporal shade. It was when he nudged me on the shoulders that I regained myself.
“How are you?” Boris asked with concern.
“Am fine, just that I’ve been wondering…” I began but was cut short by Boris.
“About your girlfriend?” he teased me.
“You’re crazy Boris,” I joked.
“So what’s up?” He asked with seriousness.
“Nothing really but the P,”
The ‘P’ was our code word for the word ‘PLAN’
“Are you scared?” He asked with a smirk.
“I’m not scared, it’s just that I’m thinking about some stuff,” I replied thoughtfully.
“Cheer up little bro, in war such things always happen and you must face it. Face it, overcome your fears, or flee and let your fears overcome you. Once embarked on, there’s no going back, that’s what we are on now,” Boris explained.
“You made a point brother, it’s just that I am not sure if I can do it,” I managed to voice out my thoughts.
“Can’t do what? You mean fight?”
“No, I mean taking a life… lives,” I explained.
“You see little bro, this is war coming and during war people allow a monstrous spirit to take over them. For instance, if this war breaks out and we are on different sides, we’ll both be enemies and fight against each other, not regarding the fact that we are brothers. And you might kill me or me you, or the both of us. That’s what you need to think now, you kill to live or live to be killed during a war. So girdle up little bro and put away the saint in you, we are almost in a war era.”
Boris concluded and left me to make a tough decision. After thinking about it for couple of days, I decided to opt in. It’s time we fight for our freedom, the black nation must be free.
The following weeks, with the help of Mr Smith, we secretly gathered more than enough weapons and ammunition and on the fourth night, the long awaited campaign started. It turned out that a male white tried to rape a female black, the husband of the female came to his wife’s rescue. He was infuriated and beat the white up mercilessly.
Later the American returned with his fellows to punish the slave but they got the shock of their lives. They were ambushed and beaten mercilessly. Three of them were killed and the rest had to flee for their dear lives. That was the beginning, a new era, war was setting in.
The Americans were taken by surprise by the sudden outburst of actions being carried out by the slaves. They didn’t have time to mobilize because the slaves didn’t give them time.
It was a bright Sunday morning when the slaves attacked and raided the homes of the Americans, slaughtering and claiming weapons and at the same time, getting ready their belongings to relocate from Virginia. Before nightfall, we’ve marched out of Virginia, not without disassembling the Americans there.
Beforehand, the slaves had already chosen sixty thousand men who could fight to form the liberation army. Thirty thousand were under Infantry and commanded by Boris, while twenty thousand were under the Calvary and were commanded by Black-Duke. The last ten thousand were under the Artillery and were commanded by Leo, Mr Smith’s son. I was the commander of the reservation army while Mr Smith was the leader of the bands of slaves, a reservation of forty thousand men were to be left in the camp with the women and children but were also armed to the teeth.
All the slaves in Virginia and its environs formed the army, many of whom were liberated during raids on the Americans. They all had just one motive – freedom – and going back to their continent, Africa, their native land.
I was also thinking of going back to Africa to reunite with my family. I always pictured my mother meeting Catherine and learning about Doris as her daughter-in-law. It always made me smile.
We moved down to North Carolina, where we engaged in a battle with the Americans and finally defeated them. We pitched our first camp. It was here the leaders of all the groups were appointed and military commanders chosen. Boris was the most rugged and daring of us all.
After camping there for three days, we decided to move down south, which led us to move down to South Carolina. Our aim was to move to the Caribbean sea area and from there, hijack ships and sail to Africa. Getting to South Carolina, we encountered little or no resistance since most Americans there had already fled to the western allies.
We took this as an advantage, not knowing that we were being pursued by the American troops, probably to capture us back into slavery.
We opened a camp in Columbia and stayed there for some weeks as a result of battles encountered.
It was around twelve in the night or should I say morning, when the sentry guards on night watch saw an impending light from afar. Its description by the guards made it look like a camping fire and thus the war was already at our doorstep. Around 6 a.m. that same morning, the liberation army mustered while waiting for Mr Smith to give them the final speech.
At long last, Mr Smith finally came and everyone went silent as he opened his mouth to deliver his powerful speech.
“My fellow liberators,” he began, “I greet you all. We all know what lies at our doorstep, sure enough, we all have to face them. The Americans, of which I am one, want to force you into slavery but here stands an American telling you to fight for your freedom. Slavery is not what one can claim possession with. Being a slave means you don’t have freedom, you can’t talk freely, move freely, associate freely and you are not given the respect you’re due. You are forced to work excessively and above all, you are not treated like humans.
“The Americans treat you like animals. They clothe you with rags, starve you or give you two miserable square meals a day, and yet still flog and treat you with brutality. When you tell them no, you can’t continue as slaves again, that you want to be free, that you want to go on your way, live by yourselves as a free nation, they say no, you must remain as their slaves. This forced you to rebel from under them and went on your way, to live a free life. Now they chase after you to bring you back as their slaves, will you let them take you back as their slaves!?”
“Nooooo!!!”
“Will you sit down and watch while they take your wives and children as slaves?”
“Neverrrr!!!”
“What will you do?”
“We shall fight the Americans!”
“All hail Mother Africa!” Mr Smith roared.
“Hail Mother Africa!” the troops roared back.
“Hail Mother Africa” rented the air as the troops started marching towards the battle field, to doom or to victory.
I just stood and watched as the troops marched out of the camp, first the Infantry followed by the Calvary and lastly the Artillery. Although the Artillery and the Calvary had the same warfare function, the difference was that the Artillery dealt in heavy military equipment while the Calvary dealt in lighter military equipment, and they also acted as back up to the Infantry.
I stood watching as Boris led them out, leading them to the battlefield. I cried silently.
I was crying for the men who were about to die, or was it for my brother or my family? I really couldn’t tell which I was crying for. It was a touch behind me that brought me back from the ocean of thoughts. I swiftly turned around to see the person. I saw a young boy who I guessed must be between the age of 17 or 18, standing with sweat pouring down his face.
“Hi Morris, Mr Smith wants to see you, he is in his tent, it’s very urgent, says you should come right away.”
The lad concluded and ran away without waiting for my response.
I immediately made my way to Mr Smith’s tent. I saw him going through some maps, without looking up, he asked me to have a seat.
“Morris my boy, how are you doing?”
“I’m fine sir,” I replied.
“Good to hear that, cause we gat lots of work to do,” Mr Smith announced.
“Look down here on this map, Mr. Smith began, “we are currently in South Carolina, right?” He asked.
“Yes sir,” came my feeble answer.
“Up here is North Carolina, if you go either South or West, you get to Georgia and if you move North-west clockwise, you’ll encounter the Appalachian Mountain, go East you face the Atlantic Ocean,” he explained.
“I see,” I replied confused. He wasn’t making sense from his explanation, as if reading my mind he asked.
“Gat what am trying to explain?”
“No sir,” I replied honestly.
I never understood him because I was lost in all his geographical theories. I was glad when he explained it better.
“You see, he began, “the Americans are in Alabama, let’s presume the battle is going on here in Columbia, assuming we move down to Atlanta in Georgia, the Americans in Alabama will have advantage over us ‘cos northwards are American troops chasing us. Eastward is the ocean and we gat no ship so our only hope will be to march down South. If we keep up camping here in Columbia, who knows how long we can hold the Americans off?”
Looking keenly at Mr Smith’s explanation, it made sense and I understood pretty well what he meant. His theory was that our present location was no longer safe and we couldn’t stand a chance against the Americans here, it was better we move out.
“Yes sir, I understand perfectly well. Where do we move to for the time being?”
“That’s why I called you,” he gesticulated.
I moved closer to the map, took a careful look and then an idea struck me.
“What if we still move down south east of South Carolina?”
“What location?” Mr. Smith asked.
“Charlestone will be a good point, you know, we can only keep watch on two places,”
“The west and the sea?” He asked, impressed.
“Exactly,” I replied.
“Then that’s it, we are moving south. Pass the word to the camp, we are moving in twenty four hours,”
“Isn’t that too short?” I asked with concern.
“No, it’s enough time for us to pack our stuff and march on, or do you want the Americans to visit us before we keep moving?” He frowned.
“No,”
“Alright, do as you’ve been told,” Mr Smith instructed.
“What about the men on the battlefield?” I asked thoughtfully.
“You mean the troops?” He smirked.
“Yes,” I formed an angry face.
“Oh don’t worry, that shouldn’t be a problem,” he replied absentmindedly.
“How will they know that we’ve moved out?”, I pressed further.
“Like I said before, it shouldn’t be a problem,”
“But answer me first,” I queried.
“Alright, I’ll send two messengers to inform them,” he explained.
“Wouldn’t that be risky?” I asked with surprise.
“You know we have not fixed our communication system…”
“I know but it’s far too exposed to send out just two men,” I interjected.
“I know but two men will be hard to detect and again they’ll be armed to the teeth,” he calmly explained. “Go and alert the camp so we can move on, the earlier the better,” he instructed for the second time.
“Alright, I’m on it sir,” I replied as I left his tent.
Leaving Mr Smith’s tenth, I started pondering what the journey down south would look like. I figured out that Mr Smith was indeed right about something which he refused to disclose to me. Thinking more about it, an idea struck me. Assuming the Americans beat the men on the battlefield, it will be easier for the troops to retreat than when women and children are with them. Indeed Mr Smith is a genius, I thought as I arrived in my tent.
I saw two men waiting for me so I passed the instructions to them to spread it round the camp. I commenced packing my stuff, when I was donez, I went out to inspect the camp. Everyone was done packing. Indeed it was faster than I anticipated. I returned back to Mr Smith to tell him the camp was ready.
He replied that we should wait till nightfall before we move out. We waited till the beginning of dusk before we hit the road to Charleston.