Suddenly he sat up, his eyes blazing red like blood and he opened his mouth and pronounced slowly.

“They kill to get freedom, destroy to get liberty, that’s what I’ll do.”

Immediately as Boris spoke those horrifying words, my eyes lightened up in surprise, every one of us, even Mr Smith wasn’t left out.

“Boris, are you sure of what you just said or you are joking?” Duke intoned in a whispering manner to avoid drawing attention from outsiders.

“I am damn serious.”

Boris replied furiously and hit the table with his left fist, sending down cups and spoons to the floor, saved only the plates filled up with food.

“Boris, just calm down and take this easy, you know!”

Dorris spoke out, trying to calm him down. Mr Smith just kept a straight face, staring at Boris’s eye-ball to eye-ball. I noticed it but didn’t know if the others noticed it also.

“Boris, the right time will come,” Mr Smith finally voiced out after a long stare.

“Yeah Boris, Mr Smith is right, the right time will come, but right now what we got to do is not to blow things out of proportion but to lie low and get more proof, tactics, formation, people and most importantly weapons. You know the Americans got plenty of weapons and guess what the slave got? Nothing, absolutely nothing other than population.”

I managed to speak up, Boris took a swift look at me, bending a little downwards and finally sat straight.

“Morris, you got lots of points there, we’ll need to learn and discover more about these men we are about to go to war with, so we get our ground and not start a campaign that will lead to our doom.”

Boris closed his eyes after his speech and Mr Smith spoke up.

“Correctly said.”

“But after your campaign, what’s next?” Catherine managed to ask looking at me.

I knew she was scared, scared of the unknown, scared of the fate that awaited us if we failed in this campaign. I could imagine her picturing the hangman’s rope, ready to execute the slaves captured alive after the battle that ended up in favour of the Americans.

The entire slave populations hanged and those who escaped execution were made to work twice more than before the campaign, that’s how things were.

I was still lost in thought when Duke’s voice jolted me back to reality.

“It will be a glorious establishment of a free black nation and of course, no white man shall force us to do things against our will.”

“But what if we lose the campaign?” Catherine pressed further.

“Come on Katty, stop being negative. We shall win,” I assured her.

“I am scared, Morris,”

“Please don’t be, everything will be fine,”

I managed to calm her down but deep down within myself, I was equally scared. But I had to brave it and not behave like a coward. Life is all about taking risks, we risked succeeding and fleeing and risked to fail. I thought about the blood bath that was about to take place. A nasty blood bath for our freedom, yes!

We were about to fight for freedom from forced labour, for our children and their descendants; they were to live in peace and freedom, being referred to as free people not to as slaves. But what about being called the descendants of slaves? That we couldn’t change but it was better to be called that than to be slaves.

“A time is coming, when there will be a rebirth, the rebirth of a new nation and civilisation. A nation free from slavery and a nation with its own government and leadership, ran by its own people,” Mr Smith spoke out.

“You’re indeed right, Mr Smith,” Boris commended Mr Smith.

I just smiled at their silly hope. We were yet to get our hands strong, not to talk about building a strong army to carry out the campaign, and here they were talking about a free black nation? Only in their dreams. Talking about war was simple, starting a war was also simple, but fighting in the war was one thing and dying during the war was another.

“Hello lads, I think an old man needs some sleep. The night isn’t young any longer. See you all tomorrow,” Mr Smith finally announced as he got up to take his leave.

“Funny old bat,” I muttered.

“Sleep warm old man,” Doris said as Mr Smith trotted off. I just sighed as every one of us retired to our sleeping spaces, but the girls surprised us by passing the night with us.

***

Tell us: Do you think the slaves should join the rebels and start a war with their captors?