Jack: Book One in the Trilogy, the Battle Begins

Rejoining the Merchant Service Part 46

With that the master went home to pack his possessions and outfit his sea trunk, unused since his days before the mast on the slave ship, Diana, which, under false pretenses, flew the American flag. International trading of slaves was banned on American ships in 1807 under federal law that prohibited the importation of any new slaves to the United States. But slave trading on the high seas persisted and some ships were hunted down and boarded by British and American officials and the crew and captain arrested for engaging in the trade.

But master left us with a measure of respect for him that we never would have guessed we would have had for this mysterious man who had just quit as our teacher of three years. Who would be our teacher now? It would be a long while before we got another one. Most of us would instead go to work in the market stalls, shipyards or on the farms.

When Jack heard the story of master's abrupt departure he seemed stunned. Rather than joke about it or revel in triumph, Jack looked disappointed, even sad. He said he wanted to go to sea too, that he had to get away from Charleston. We were almost 15 years old now and it was time for both of us, Jack said, to stop playing childhood games like the Midnight Raiders.

"It's time we strike out on our own. Let's join the merchant service! What in tarnation do we want to stay in Charleston our whole lives for? There's so much a'goin' on in the world outside. Let's head out to the deep blue sea!" Jack said.

"Oh no!" I said. "I don't want to go with you," I asserted. "I like it fine here. I won't go."

"Look," said Jack, "we just need to go for six months or a year. We just need a paper sayin' we're sixteen. Com'on! We'll do what we always said we were going to do - go out on the high seas seekin' adventure in foreign ports. I've been up and down the rivers a hundred times and I'm ready for somethin' bigger."

"My parents will never let me go - I got to get me an education," I protested.

"What better school is there than the deep blue sea and a'goin to foreign ports - Spain, Portugal, India, Cuba and Jamaica? Get me some of them good ole Cuban cigars," said Jack. "Relax on the beaches; get some of that Jamaican rum everyone says is so good; sailing on a fast clipper through the Cape of Good Hope. What else could ya ask for, tell me? We just write our parents a note a'sayin' we've joined the merchant service and will return within six months. We leave at the last minute so they don't have time to stop us."

"I don't know," I said. "I think it would be a lot more difficult a life than you make it out to be."

"Com'on! You don't have no teacher now anyway so you'll just have to work in the fields, a'pickin' cotton along the river alongside the darkies if you don't come with me. I thought we were going to always stick together. Beside we'll have a teacher with us if my plan goes off like I hope it will."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "You're joking. Not Master Whittemore?"

"Why not? I said I'd be back when he stopped being a such a cabbage head!"

"How would we do that and I thought you hated his guts," I said.

"I did. But he's different now - not such a bonehead," Jack said. "And I want to know what he's up to. He will be so shocked to see us on the same sea voyage as he is undertaking. Let's do it! Let's follow him to see what ship he's a'gonna go on and we'll sign on the same ship."

"What if it's a slaver?" I asked.

"Won't be no slaver," Jack said. "And if it is I have a feelin' master'll be a'spreadin' a new-found abolitionist talk. He's a turnin' into a damn abolitionist Yankee!"

"But you're an abolitionist yourself," I said teasingly.

"Yeah right," Jack said. "I don't want the slaves to be slaves but I don't think they should be freed all at once neither."