Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

On one of our visits to Chowning’s Tavern we were entertained by a musician playing the smallest violin I’ve ever seen! He said it was called a panchette which relates to the French word for pocket, and was used by traveling music and dancing masters. Boy! Did he pull the music out of that little thing! He had been there another night, playing a mandolin, but I didn’t get a picture that time.

Thursday afternoon, we all attended a discussion at the auditorium about the slave trade – who, where, and why. It began with wars between various African tribes and countries, each side taking prisoners of war, which needed to be fed and housed, even at very minimal levels. Along comes some white fellow in a big ship who says not only will he take these prisoners off your hands, but he’ll pay you money to do it! Such a deal.

Eventually, tribes began simply raiding other areas to capture slaves. Even after they discovered the ultimate fate of the slaves, the trade continued. We were shown the difference between “loose pack” and “tight pack”. The old and young died first and were thrown to the sharks. The speaker said that to this day, schools of sharks tend to follow the path of the slave ships.

We also had a chance to visit with Gowan Pamphlet, who was a Baptist minister, first as a slave and then as a freeman. His mistress paid for his preaching license while he was still a slave, and then granted him his freedom upon her death. Fascinating man, and a friend of Absalom Jones.

 As I said before, The Squire and the Godson had a chance to take part in a court trial, so afterward the Godson had to spend some time in the stocks, and his sidekick kept him company. Normally, you spent an hour in the stocks, which was d— uncomfortable to begin with, but they nailed your ears to the board, and released you by cutting off your ears.

Even with the medicine,  it was obvious that I was not going to be able to keep up much longer.  If I sat for more than 20 minutes – long enough to eat a meal, perhaps – I had difficulty getting started again, and if I walked too long it began to feel as if I had a stone under each heel, so I tended to walk on tip-toe. I had originally booked the apartment to leave on Sunday morning, and the boys were both looking forward to attending services again at Bruton Parish. The Squire and I talked it over, and I offered to stay “home” (give me a couple of books and I’m good for days) so he and the boys could continue to explore. They mentioned going to Jamestown, which was covered by our tickets, but I think The Squire had visions of me getting in to visit a doctor immediately, which didn’t happen. July 22nd is the earliest they can see me.

Lucky it’s not my heart.