Chapter 4: Us and Them and a Missouri Boatride

Well, now the chase was on, with all three parts of the wagon train on the run for three different reasons with similar root causes at the same time. And they were being chased by three different teams. Now, while all three of the leaders of the wagon trains all knew about each other, some members of the trains knew about the other two trains, none of the men chasing knew anything about anything but who they were after. Now add in the road fools looking for easy money, the road to Memphis just never seemed to end, and they didn’t seem to any closer to Memphis today than they were yesterday. Now in truth they were just around the corner from Memphis and should arrive with-in a day or so, with the last of them arriving in less than a week, provided there was no major slowdown along the way.

Amos Butler was in the lead of the three trains headed to Memphis, his train had grown by a few wagons only as most of his people were not around to assist, but he did manage to pick up more than a few strangers along the way. Plus a few folks they picked up along the way as they were walking on the road, or just appeared out of the woods after seeing who was in the wagon train as it past. Amos was lucky enough to take off men who were meaning to do a spot of robbing, until a dose of hot lead discouraged these silly notions that they were sadly no longer able to perform. Their little camp of stolen wagons was guarded by two men too stupid to do the job right, as Amos got the drop on them by himself. John Mills who was the only one still alive as he was sleep when the ambush went down. These would be robbers wanted him to dig a few graves, including his own. Joanie is his wife of a few weeks and both were traveling with Joanie’s family. Abner Sr., Petra her mother, and her younger brother Peter, but sadly her dad was killed in the ambush. Her mother a strong woman was ready for whatever came to make sure her family survived.

Petra and company were completely and totally unprepared about what to do after Amos killed the so-called guards. When Amos told Petra he had no interest in stealing from them or killing them all of them visibly relaxed, still not wanting to believe Amos meant them no harm. It was only after Amos helped finish burying Abner Sr. that Petra relaxed, and thanked Amos for arriving when he did, as she wasn’t looking forward to what her future held at the hands of her attackers. They claimed their two wagons and the other four stood by only needing to be hitched up with new drivers, as they were freight wagons loaded with goods headed for Nashville. All this meant to Amos was that somebody in the Nashville area was going to come up just a little bit short, as these supplies were now lost in transit.

Amos hurried to line up some drivers to get them on the move, and to leave the vandals alive, with no mercy cuts if they were still alive, as they forgot to mention the guards looking after the extra wagons. Amos really didn’t want to give any of them a mercy cut anyway, as they were in a bad line of work. So they should die a very slow and very painful death, as an occupational hazard for the line of work that they chose. All of this new action meant that Bob not only lost his relatives and the supplies they intended to steal and return to him, he had also lost his freight inside of the supply wagons the freight company was sending from the docks in Memphis. The freight company had lost 10 men, all the supplies loaded in the wagons, and all of the hidden gold in each of the four wagons, that nobody but the managers of the freight company knew about, besides the head driver, who was the son of one of the owners of the freight company.The luck that had surrounded Mack Shaft and his men continued to give Mack and his crew benefit after benefit. Amos would be so glad when they all met up in Memphis, as their group was a little thin on protection with all of the new members added to their part of the wagon train.

Mack was still practicing with his new rifles, his speed and accuracy, were both increasing by the day. By the time they reached the Oklahoma Territory Mack would be almost as good as the man known as Lucas McCain living in the New Mexico Territory. Mack had met Lucas in Washington when Lucas spent a night at the fort. So when Mack saw that rifle that looked like McCain’s he knew what it was capable of doing for a man dedicated to learning how to use it. That simple conversation years ago and a short demonstration later on, was all Mack needed, as he never forgot that conversation. He tried to use a regular rifle and was deadly accurate, so all that was left to learn was the quick firing, and shooting accurate fast, which came to Mack very fast. Mack was just as deadly with the short rifle as well, and Mack thanked the bandit who gave his life to donate these rifles to Mack as his gunplay skills had left a lot to be desired. Mack was a long way from slowwith handguns, but just wasn’t accurate as many men, believe it or not because the handgun that were thought to be heavy to some men were all just too light in weight to Mack, but the short rifle was an answer to the weight problem of the first shot, after the first shot, it was a copy of the long rifle.

Mack had a conversation with his mother that he has no idea what to do about what she informed him of last night. “Mack, Massa sold your father not long after you got away, he also sold your two older brothers, and two of your older sisters, for a handsome profit I might add, sadly. He made the men buying your father, and my stand-in think that they would be getting the same exact bloodlines. But he had refused to sell me, as he promised my mother whom he loved so dearly, before she died, that he would never sell me no matter the situation. The only reason your youngest sister is still with me is because he saw the way that I cried when he sold all of the rest of my family. He later regretted selling our family at all as he had no idea the local slave traders had tried to take you from his men. He only found out what exactly happened after he saw some of his stock for sale that day, and tortured the man until he confessed what had happened. The man then unwillingly forfeited ALL of his remaining stock that was for sale. Only to die very slowly and painfully out at the plantation by thin cuts all over his body to bleed to death VERY SLOWLY. Most of us felt sad at they way he was whipped to add to his troubles, though many of the men were secretly glad seeing a white man under the lash, even though many of them winced from the memory of the same lash striking them.” My Mom said.

“Mack I all telling you all of this because I have had my share of incest in my life, as the Massa was my Father, and your father was in fact my older brother. After Massa broke me in so to speak, he gave me to my brother because of our shared skin color. We did what we expected to do to even though we were not happy about it at first, after a while we just learned to live with it. Some of the good traits came out in other odd matings, but only your siblings mating with each other, as well as my brother and I produced the complete package. That was so sought after in the coloring, and other traits, namely our eyes, and better grade of hair, that Massa seemed to like, and Massa was selling these children, by the time they were about five years old, or older.

So I am just going to be blunt and put it out there that as I have no idea where my brother is, I will not be with any other man but you, and your sister also feels the same way, and she has yet to sleep with any man yet.” My mom said. I was indeed speechless to say the least. The look that was on my face told it all, for sure. I was so concerned with getting away to the Oklahoma Territory I was indeed looking at women as any normal man would. But I wasn’t trying to hook up with any woman right now as my focus had to be sharp, as well as on point, to give us the best chance for all of us to get where we were trying to get to safely. I made it clear to my men a man worrying over a woman is easier to lose the edge that we men have survived on during the war. Once we are in the Indian Nations we may can relax a little but as the Indians have been misused, they will also bear watching as they are much more clever than the white men we have been forced to deal with.

When we walked back into camp my mom was holding my hand, and before she let me go she gave me a very un-motherly kiss in front of anyone who happened to be looking our way. “Get used to to kissing me, as I want to have more than one child by you before I retire to be the mother-hen to your wife and the rest of your household. I am a one-man woman, I always have been, so if we begin fucking, and your father does return I will be glad to see him as I love both as a brother, and a man. But my thighs will be forever closed to him as you will be my man by my choice. I will expect you to make that clear to him if my telling him is not strong enough to suffice in his mind. Because any new children I have, I would want all of them to have the same daddy. Do you understand what I am saying to you Mack?” My mom asked me. “Yes Ma’am.” was about all I could say to what all she had just said to me. I hoped that I can sleep tonight as my mom had me both exited, and wondering if I could really become her new man/husband, all the while knowing that she is indeed the woman who gave me life. And taught me many of the things that I know, including teaching me to read and write, as well right from wrong.

These things that I now know are just a few parts of reason that we were so valuable as slaves, that also made our family such a hot commodity to be sold. My mother told me. “That my Grandfather sold the family members he sold as he was trying to make money every way that he could, as he felt that this was the end of his way life was over, or soon would be forever. It was his intention to sell his Plantation and move north, or out west. The only problem is that he was truly unaware just how many people on his Plantation that were actually book smart. He never had a clue that my mother taught everyone who lived there to read and write as well as math. Even though it was so obvious that everyone knew what books were for, it was like the worst kept secret on the Plantation. The funny thing about it was that many of my Grandfather’s people overseeing us could not read all that much past their own names. So while he was packing up to leave, with the slaves doing the packing of course, Grandfather sent some of these same overseers the with the understanding that they were supposed to be on a plantation very close by, with the owners permission, for a few weeks. The slaves sent the overseers to heaven, and just kept on going until they knew that they needed to get off the road and that is how they ended up where I found them. Word had come down that Massa had been robbed and killed while trying to find out exactly where we had ended up.”

“That is how we were indeed so easily trapped where you found us. And that is how we were able to organize so fast to make our escape, only we tried not to kill as many folks though the natives wanted to kill everyone white there. I had to make them see the way we did it would hurt much more, knowing no other Plantation owners were in a position to help very much as they had to keep their places under guard from the carpetbaggers.” My mom had said to me before we return to camp. I was finally able to go to sleep and it seem as though only a few minutes later somebody was kicking my foot to get me up for the day. I looked up to see it was my sister telling me that breakfast was ready. I quickly got my morning business done and took my plate to hurry up and eat, so I could get gone on my scouting for the day. Of course that kiss was the topic all of the camp, of course I really did not want to discuss it all. As it was way too new to me just thinking about it, let alone talking about, said kiss. But I was sure of one thing though if my mom got into my bed I would indeed do the deed, as I have said my mother is a force of nature. And to be honest it wasn’t as though my mom was all that old, or hard on the eyes. So I would just be doing the nasty with my mother and making sure she was a happy woman while I was at it too.

When I left to lead my team of scouts I put my woman troubles on the back burner as much as I could to be sure I was alert as I knew the closer we get to Memphis the more trouble we would be having concerning slave traders, and road agents/folks that were looking to take from anyone they could, trying to make trouble for all of us. Just as I said that statement to myself, a group of scruffy men in tattered clothes show themselves in front of us, and looked ready to demand to see if we had any papers to prove our freedom, and the right to be moving in such a large group. We didn’t even waste time speaking we just let the lead fly. They died looking so surprised, and offended, that we shot first without asking, or answering anything, that they had asked of us. We stopped long enough to strip them of whatever they had of value and throw them off to the side of the road, we began move on towards Memphis once again.

Buck while he was bringing up the rear he was making progress and had no idea that his groups was closer to Mack’s group than he was the day before as he was anxious to be rid of the people that were not going with them, after Memphis, unlike Mack’s his mother she wasn’t taking about making a life with him, but she had made it very clear that wherever he was going, she intend to be going as well. “Beau your father is going to wish he had left that ground when we did before this moving business is all over with. If he wants to find me, and surely I hope that he does, but until he does I will be considering myself as a widow. If I happen to find a man before your Dad finds me, I will give your dad his money, if I still have it at that time. Although it is my intent to move on with my life, and if I happen to find some happiness wherever we end up at I intend to grab that happiness with both of my hands, willingly.” My mom said. This was a shock to me, I had no idea the little shock I was getting from my mom was nothing compared to what Mack was hearing at the same time, from his own mom. Although little did I know at the time that I would be having a few extra shocks, that would be heading my way when we stopped in Memphis. I was just glad the road was clear, and even though we remained alert there seem to be no one out trying be a road agent, on the final leg of our trip to Memphis.

The temperature in Buck’s group was still simmering as the us and them mentality was still both going on, as well as growing worse by the day. As several men refused to pay the day’s wages, complaining that no man has the right to tell them how to deal with their own SLAVES! Well needless to say when they found themselves without any help the next day, well now they were only that much madder about the whole work situation. These men ended up paying the other white to use their help only to find out if they wanted the help to do extra then the money had to go into the hands doing the work or the white folks could do the work as they are the ones who were paid to do the work.

One poor and DUMB white man decided to pull out his whip, to adjust the black men’s way of thinking, and struck the black man who was talking to him saying no to him about anything, well the entire group black men that were near by turned on him like a pack of wild animals. The group of white standing there could do nothing to help the man as he was quickly knocked out cold and they had no interest in being treated with that same tender loving care that they just saw dished out RIGHT QUICK AND RIGHT NOW! “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED BACK HERE!” Buck shouted at both of the groups. With-in a few minutes’ Buck had been given the 411 on what had happen, and he just shook his head before he walked away.

“Look all you had better figure out what you are going to do as this wagon train is pulling in 15 minutes with or without your wagons gentlemen. I warned all of you these men will no longer work for free. This why they are asking for their money daily, as you folks continue to want to live in the past. You have to stop thinking of them as SLAVES that you can tell them what to do and say as though they have no other choices in life. These people are MEN and WOMEN you remember that fact when it is convenient to you. I am sure you are aware that the dark females are indeed women when you want to fuck their PUSSIES. And you damn sure are aware that those men are really and truly men with dark skin if you even think that they have had a stray thought of sniffing around your womenfolks! Anyone of you want to speak up and tell me what dog or other animal you have that, you expect to be able to cook your meals and wash you clothes, and understand every word you speak to them? Lastly if their just animals, are you are also fucking your dogs, cats, horses, cows, etc. etc. etc. when they are in heat?” I somewhat calmly asked ALL OF THE WHITE MEN standing in front of me. None of them could answer any of the questions that I had just asked them. The group of insulted black men and myself moved away to get ready to roll out at our assigned positions for the day.

Every group spoke about what happened this morning and what it may or may not, mean from this point going forward. But the last question, that I had asked of the men was also discussed among the women also. Nobody on either side, meaning both men or women as well both colors, wanted to openly comment one way of the other. Concerning what I asked about immediately after the little scuffle settled down this morning. All that said Buck had to go and ask what the new plan was concerning the black workforce, as Buck was told in no uncertain terms nobody would not be allowed employ the women without employing the men as well. That statement alone nearly started up a brand-new argument all over again.

Sometime during the day everyone in the white group must have talked, and they all hurried to pay for today and tomorrow very willingly. I had a feeling they thought if they can just get to Memphis all of this will be over with as they and their will be away from me, and in a brand-new wagon train. Then they will either stop paying any new fees, or they can both stop paying and demand all of the money that they have already paid them as well. Meaning they would just go back to treating these people just about however they choose to. I hope it all works out the way they dared to hope that it would. But I knew that they were most likely going to be very sad, very soon. Though none of that was my little red wagon to push or pull. What it came down to was that we all were in a anxious hurry to get to Memphis, for whatever our different reasons were.

Amos was so glad to find out that they were out the outskirts of Memphis, as Amos had no real idea exactly what to do, from this point forward though. As he and his Buffalo Soldiers were armed and would not be disarmed willingly. So Amos just circled the wagons with everyone in his group staying put, knowing that help was hopefully just a few days away. Early the next day the folks looking to take anybody with black skin into custody started sniffing around Amos’ group. With Amos speaking up for himself, and him being told it is against the law for black people to be armed in Memphis. Amos’ answer to this was to point out the fact that they were not yet in Memphis, which did not go over to well at all. Amos was informed this was not over at all, and that a judge will be issuing an order for them to turn in their guns to the Court. To keep them busy they began checking their wagons to make sure that they are ready for the next leg of their journey. The next day the Judge and Marshal came out to let them know that they had to turn in their weapons, or face a posse that would disarm them one way, or another. When Amos pointed out the fact that they were not in Memphis yet, the Judge got both upset and red in the face as he shouted. “You are close enough be upsetting the good folks of Memphis, and that fact was close enough to being in Memphis for this Court!” “If we do turn in our weapons, what if predators attempt to do us harm?” Amos asked. “Boy that is no concern of this Court, you just have to do what this court tells you to do.” The Judge sternly said.

“Besides if you were not runaway slaves from somewhere, then you would not be out here anyway. Maybe if you throw yourself on the mercy of the Court and let us get you settled somewhere, that way you won’t have to worry about any predators.” The Judge said. “Well thank you, but no thank you, for all your help. We are not trying to stay here and will be moving on in a day or so.” Amos said. “Well, what you are saying is just not good enough, so in two days men will be out here to disarm you all, or kill you, but you all can stop all of this by turning over your weapons, right now.” The Marshal said. “Well you gentlemen have our answer, Sir. As Mack Shaft would say we believe in SELF PRESERVATION way too much to turn over our weapons and leave ourselves defenseless against harm. Marshal would you take off your guns out here with no way to defend yourself?” Amos calmly asked the Marshal. “We are not out here talking about me, you darkies are not allowed to carry guns around here, and you will be disarmed! The Marshal yelled at Amos. While the Judge and the Marshal were running off at the mouth about what the group should do, a group of four men were off to see if they could find some reenforcements from whichever friendly group is closest.

Just about one hour before dark, about the time Mack and company were about to set up the tent city, the group of four from Amos group, rode up on Macks’ group on four tired horses. “Mack, Amos sent us he needs more help we are about to be fighting men intent on disarming us even though we have plenty of men with guns. Amos feels sometime tomorrow the slaver traders and going to try and use the law to take us into custody on the charge of we can’t have guns in Memphis. We are about five miles outside Memphis but the judge claims that we are too close to Memphis, and they mean to disarm the camp. The men told everyone. “We were going to keep on moving through the night anyone not wanting to go, just please understand, that the protection was going on through the night as there was a threat of trouble ahead of us a few hours, that we would also face in a day ourselves. So we were going help out our other members, as we should have been there already, anyway.” Mack said. In less then one hour every wagon was on the move to get to our people before the folks trying to do them wrong arrived first.