Chapter 114: Retraining Amos

Saturday Night was a private family party with only our core group invited. Everyone travelling with me had their own families to spend time with that night, so it was just us on our own again, and that was just fine by me. I’d gone over the town map with Thomas earlier and he was happy to map out a small chunk of about three hundred acres. I told him how to put up markers and we officially drew it on the large map I had hanging in the camper. He and his family headed home shortly thereafter.

Our family party was fairly subdued; it wasn’t a jump around type of party. Everyone had overeaten at dinner, so we had a light supper and then enjoyed wine and beer for a couple of hours more, while I did research and wrote out plans. Michelle and Mouse both fawned over me all evening. ‘Lovey dovey’ would be the correct phrase. It was a laid back evening and I, for one, was definitely getting laid that night.

Amos became ‘Boy’ again Sunday morning. It was an ugly thing, but he had to stay in character once we headed south. I was also aware that you didn’t have to mistreat your slaves and I treated him with the respect he deserved. I also knew that I had to keep him close to me at all times. Away from my homestead, I had little to fall back on in the way of support, and zero contacts of consequence. He was also responsible for Brin. I knew that dog was going to be a pain on the boat ride down. Coming down from Ft. Dickson, the kids had kept him occupied. On this journey, he’d be bored and likely to do something really stupid. We also packed fishing gear for Amos so he could try to feed us some fresh food on the journey. Around people, however, he had to be my shadow and act like my personal servant.

Amos, on his part, didn’t care. He was going on a long adventure, which is the heart’s desire of many a young man. I was proud of him. I spent a lot of time that day explaining things to him. Timmons would explain a lot more to us on the trip down. I did mention that our first stop would be to get proper city clothing since people would treat him differently as soon as he dressed the part. He’d have to act the part, though, and would still be running and fetching. Timmons assured me he knew of a tailor shop that would serve our needs so we’d have Amos dressed as a rather proper young manservant.

Amos brought me my morning coffee and laid out my clothes for the day. It was like my mother was with me again, to have someone fussing over me in this manner. Still, I had told him to shadow me and act like a servant, so that’s what he did. It would take me a while to get used to this because privacy was almost non-existent when you had a personal servant.

I then went about pulling together gold and silver for deposit. I decided to take down 350 lbs. of each. I’d store them on the boat, under guard, until I found a bank or two. Then I’d have the banks pick the metals up for deposit. Most of the banks in town had disappeared due to the Panic of 1819 and the problems at the 2^nd National US Bank. Sadly, that became a trend in US history - the trustworthiness of banks was always in doubt. I needed to find a way to move my money to Brown Brothers or New York City Bank. I hoped to find a way to do that soon. I went back to the archives and wrote out a list of banks I would seek out.