Becoming Americans (18 page)

      "The whore, Drusilla, knows a lot more about the ways of the Devil than she should, I think sometimes," Sawyer replied to Richard. "I won't accuse her of being a witch, but she's mighty knowledgeable about curses and potions and omens and such."

      Richard insisted on his topic.

      "I'm ready for my freedom and my dues," he said.

      Sawyer looked at the "R" branded on his hand that had been burned there when he was caught and returned to his original master for the second time.

      "I'll talk to Ingolbreitsen when next he's here. I think you're right. It's time to get on with your life," Sawyer said. "Ingolbreitsen can probably make better use of you than can Harper," Sawyer said.

      "The Captain is a good man," Richard said. He noticed that his words were slurring. He tried to speak more clearly.

      "He treats me with
respect,"
he said. "He paid for my last woman, he did." Richard drank deeply from his tankard.

      "Then I'll treat you to your
next!"
Sawyer was delighted. He stood and pulled Richard up.

      "I do you a favor and, hopefully, in nine months, it will be a favor to me. Though it may favor you!"

      "I'm too tipsy for riddles," Richard said, but he followed Robert Sawyer to a small hut where his host opened the door for them to enter.

      "This here's Delilah," Sawyer said, and indicated a young black woman sitting on the hearth by a fire in the dirt-floor hut. She was nursing an infant while another small child lay in a basket nearby. A toddler sat with her by the fire.

      "She's my breeder. She knows she gets to stay with the babies while the other slaves work all day. She eats well and does some light chores for Mistress Sawyer, but she has it pretty easy. She doesn't know it, but in a few years I'll have a good crop of strong young slaves to work or sell."

      Richard nodded with the logic.

      "And it's your luck that my breeder's ready for a new stud."

      Richard stared back, unknowing what was meant.

      "She's for your use tonight, Man! Make me a strong boy baby?" He slapped Richard on the back.

      "Nobody'll know but you and me and Delilah," he said, laughing. "And it ain't in nobody's interest to blab the word, is there?" The planter laughed again.

      Richard stood and stared. The wine had warmed his insides, and the sight of Delilah's naked breasts as she fed the child brought back a vision of the redheaded wench. His heart was pounding.

      Sawyer closed the door behind himself as he went out laughing.

      Delilah knew what she was supposed to do, and simply lay back on the dirt floor and opened her legs wide. The child continued to suckle as Delilah watched the young man release his breeches. Then she quietly studied the thatch ceiling as he mounted her.

 For some time after lying with the slave, Delilah, Richard was preoccupied with fear and guilt. The guilt lasted for only a few days—until he was desperately in need of a woman again. The fear, though, kept him from returning to Delilah, or of searching out another wench like Sarah. He couldn't marry Anne if he carried the pox from being with such women, yet the need for a woman grew more powerful. When, after a month, he'd shown no signs of the disease, he determined that he must have Anne sooner than her father would permit. He couldn't wait the year remaining of his indenture. Solving the dilemma was his obsession until events outside Virginia came to his attention.

      Word arrived before the end of 1664 that hostilities had broken out between the English and the Dutch. And, as the new year came, it was learned that the horror of the worst plague in memory had returned to London. An epidemic of such ferocity struck in 1665 that the tobacco fleet was forbidden from leaving English ports to come for Virginia's crop. Both of Anne's uncles were dead.

      The life's blood of the colony was stopped from flowing. Harper and Sawyer met with other planters in the county and sent a delegation to Governor Berkeley pleading for some action. Sir William Berkeley needed no prodding from these minor planters though, for his plantation at Green Springs was among the largest in Virginia. Governor Berkeley's solution was to organize a fleet of eighteen ships already in the colony that would sail to England united in a convoy for mutual protection from the Dutch. If this were successful, other convoys would follow. But, with such a small fleet sailing, poundage from each planter would be limited, and there was no assurance that the fleet could evade the massive Dutch men-of-war or their privateers. Even solid men considered risky ventures to save their fortunes.

      As the difficulties mounted, Francis Harper became frantic with worry about his obligations of debt. Edward Williams would be happy to extend more credit—that was his business, but—unknown to Drusilla Harper—a clause in his mortgage to Sawyer called for payment by Harper of certain of Sawyer's obligations to Sawyer's own Bristol factor; obligations that must be satisfied no later than this year.

      "Why's the wood-cutter speaking so cocky and so unconcerned about the fleet, that's what I want to know," Drusilla said to Richard one morning as she handed him his beer and bacon. "He's made some deal with the Devil, he has. That Dutchman friend of his is smuggling, he is. That friend of yours!" She slammed Richard's filled tankard onto the table.

      "Captain Ingolbreitsen has become a subject of the English crown, I'm told," Richard said. "The Lower Norfolk Court were pleased with his services to them. There were petitions on his behalf…."

      "He's still a Dutchman to me, and all they think about is making another pound. They're next to the Jews in avarice, the Dutch are," she said.

      Then I'm next to a Dutchman, Richard thought. And if Sawyer and Ingolbreitsen knew of secret advantages to be made of this war with Holland, Richard wanted in on it. With some more money, he could have his freedom and could have Anne Biggs.

      Drusilla looked out to the moonlit bay. Ingolbreitsen's largest ship was anchored offshore from Sawyer's pier that night.

      "That Dutchman's dealing with the Devil," she said to no one.

      The tide was out, and Richard ran along the beach to where he saw two shallops of Sawyer's ferrying hogsheads to the ship. An English flag flew from Ingolbreitsen's mast.

      "Another load of Quakers and corn bound for Nansemond County," Sawyer said as Richard approached.

      "A large load, this time," Richard said. "The sect is growing fast."

      "Aye, it is," Sawyer said. "But the Captain's touchy now he's an Englishman, so you best get away before he sees you."

      "I bet that ship could make it to England in six weeks. Eight, at the most," Richard said, staring at the ship and remembering his voyage over.

      "Not with all those Dutch cannon at sea…" Sawyer began.

      "I'm no fool," Richard said. "It's the Captain's friends who man those Dutch cannon. Your tobacco will be the first to reach England. Should fetch a fancy price, I'd think. I wish to speak with the Captain for my master."

      "For Harper? Your master wouldn't dirty his hands in smuggling out tobacco without paying His Gracious Majesty's tax. Or, is he suddenly desperate enough, I wonder?"

      "I'll speak to Ingolbreitsen," Richard insisted.

      "Your balls are bigger than your head, Williams," Sawyer said. He hesitated. "But, sometimes that's what it takes." He waved one of his workmen over.

      "Take Williams out to the ship," he told the man.

      Richard climbed the rope ladder to the deck of the ship. Onboard, his footing was sure. The bay was calm, and this ship was bigger than the one he'd arrived on.

      He knocked on the cabin door and went in when answered.

      "Welcome, Richard, welcome. Are you free now, and come for your payment?" the Captain asked.

      "No, Captain, I'm not yet free, but you could hasten that day, whilst I bring you a few pounds extra."

      "Tit for tat. Always the best business arrangement."

      Richard rushed out with the proposal as fast as it came to him.

      "My master is desperate to get his crop to England. If you deliver some of his crop with this early sailing, he'll pay dearly. And, for making the arrangement, I earn my early freedom!"

      It was an audacious proposal that he made. How would he ever approach Harper with such an idea? Harper was a strict follower of all rules.

      "Harper? I'm surprised that he would consider so risky an operation. But desperate times call for desperate measures. For us all. Right, Richard?"

      "Yes, Sir, Captain."

      "Send him to me within the hour. If he agrees to my terms—to our terms— we must reach Pine Haven and load his hogsheads in time to sail with the next tide. There's not much time."

      Not much time, indeed, Richard said to himself as he ran back down the narrowing shore. He ran to the Harper's house and banged on the door.

      Drusilla Harper opened the door in surprise.

      "What is it, Richard? Where did you go? What's wrong?" she asked.

      "Nothing. I need to speak with the master. Alone."

      Drusilla and Harper looked at each other, then she stepped outside to let them talk.

      "Master, I know this is a surprise, and I know you can whip me for the impertinence, but I've conceived a plan that will free you of your pressing debts. But, a plan that must be acted on tonight!"

      Richard stopped to catch his breath.

      Francis Harper slammed closed the Bible he was reading.

      "Who dared speak to you of my debts!"

      Richard remained silent as Harper searched his face and calmed.

      "I warned my son about relationships with servants," he muttered.

      Harper's mind came back to the pressing subject.

      "Smuggling, is he? I saw Ingolbreitsen's vessel in the bay this afternoon," he said softly. "My wife's said she's suspected something all along. There's always been talk," Harper said, while staring at the wick lamp.

      "He'll slip past the Dutch without a shot," Harper said to no one. "Even if my small shipment in the Governor's official convoy does get through…." He turned to Richard.

      Richard looked to the floor.

      "This will cost me dearly, will it not?" he asked Richard, then looked away. "My honor, above all."

      He looked sad and weak to Richard.

      "Not so much as losing your plantation to your neighbor, and leaving your wife and son penniless in this harsh land!"

      Richard was so surprised at his own daring words that he was slow to notice the blow to his head that Harper delivered. He lowered his voice.

      "Please forgive me, Master, but the time for decision is now. There is no time to waste. His ship sails with the tide."

      Harper hesitated for a moment as he looked out the open window to the strip of sandy beach.

      "Saddle my horse, then get to the warehouse and roll out the hogsheads. I'll ride to Sawyer's."

By the end of August, war with the Dutch was bringing results to the colonists. The English had taken New Amsterdam, and captured prisoners of war were sent to Virginia to help fill the growing need for servants. The Governor paced each day, awaiting news of his convoy, but at Pine Haven and at the Sawyer plantation, relief came early.

      Ingolbreitsen's ship was fully rigged on the nearly windless day in early September when its sails drifted above the tops of the spit of pine trees and past Pine Haven. Edward was the first to notice it, and ran to fetch his father who was harvesting the year's crop.

      "Father, Ingolbreitsen's ship is back," he said in a voice of hushed anticipation.

      Harper stood up and held the knife that he'd been cutting plants with by his side. Richard stood erect in the next row and waited to be spoken to. Eno continued cutting stalks of tobacco and placing them on the ox-drawn sled.

      "Edward take my knife and continue the work. Richard, I will most likely want a word with you later." Richard watched this master walk down the row of tobacco towards the house. He heard what he knew were prayers being uttered by Harper, and he briefly said one for himself.

      Edward knew of Richard's deal with Ingolbreitsen and looked at his friend with mixed emotions. Today could be the end of their long relationship. Edward was proud that Richard had been stowing away his private earnings in planning for his freedom, yet he would miss the ready presence of this servant who was also his closest friend. He was secretly jealous of Richard's adventures in Lower Norfolk and with the Birkenhead uprising, and he longed for a day when he'd be free to leave his father in pursuit of his own adventures. But he knew that that could never be. Pine Haven was his future.

      "Remember when we met in Bristol?" Edward said, and bent to cut a stalk.

      "The High Street was full of Cromwell's troops, so Uncle Edward and I had to come 'round by the Dry Street with all that crowd of merchants and beggars…. So many people in such a narrow street."

      "We didn't know how much our world would change," said Edward, as he nudged Eno to move on down the row.