Interlude: Born In The CSA
Born in the CSA I
May 24th, 1868. Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
It was Sunday, to be exact, which is why Will Lawrence was not working. Will was a laborer at the port. Payment was poor, but Will needed what he could get if he were to survive in the white man’s world.
You see, Will Lawrence had been a slave only five years earlier.
On this particular day, Will sat comfortably on a park bench (or as comfortably as a black man could in the United States in the year 1868) with one of his few friends, a Mr. Elroy Foreman. A fellow laborer, Elroy was the only white man Will had ever met who treated him better than dirt. Elroy, a few years older than Will, read the newspaper aloud to Will. Will could not read, having never been taught, and Elroy was not the most compelling speaker, but this was their arrangement, and they liked it well enough.
“It says here that Colfax is the nominee for the GOP.”
“I know that. They decided that a number of days ago, remember?”
“Yes, Willie, I know, but that’s what it says.” With a laugh, Elroy said “I don’t decide what’s in the paper, I just read it.”
“It must be an old paper, from a few days ago or something” Will said. Elroy checked: it was.
“Yes, this is Friday’s paper.” After a moment, Elroy asked, “Do you vote?”
“Elroy, you must remember that I was-”
“Sorry! Terribly sorry, Willie!” They didn’t talk much about that time, or at least tried not to, but it did come up from time-to-time.
“To answer your question, no. I don’t see much point. It’s a contest to determine which o’ these white folks will tell us all what to do. I appreciate what the Republicans want to do for folks like me, but I don’t think much of this whole affair.”
“What affair?”
“America, Elroy.” There was a moment of silence, and Will couldn’t help but think of his sisters, brothers, cousins, still trapped in bondage. Men like his father, who’d been whipped ‘til his back looked like a mountain range. Women like his sister, concubine to some devilish white man. Did it matter if it was Colfax who won instead of Seymour? Would any man do anything to help the slaves? Lincoln might have tried, but that certainly hadn’t gone as planned.
“I’ll tell you this much, Willie,” Elroy interjected, interrupting Will’s unpleasant thoughts. “I’m voting for Colfax. Say what you want about the Republicans and Wade and all that, but Schuyler Colfax would never take no bribes from those railway men.”
Born in the CSA II
May 28th, 1869. Archer, Florida, Confederate States of America
They’d changed their names, crossed the seas, and tried their best to fit in. Phineas Hoffman, whose name had been Pinchas in the old world, sat with his wife and Doctor Fleming on the floor of their house. Hoffman was a tailor, and not a particularly good one. His wife was screaming loudly, and pushing their new baby out of her body. Phineas had sent his other children, Daniel and Sarah, to their Uncle’s house for the evening, so that the Hoffmans and Doctor Hilel could peacefully agonize over the birth.
Phineas and his wife, Rebecca, had travelled from Europe just after the war that tore this land in two. This was, in hindsight, a smart move. Jews in the German states had a target on their backs after that business with Bismarck.[1] They’d had Daniel soon after they arrived, and then Sarah. Phineas wondered what the children would become, how they would react with another member of their family. Daniel was quite quick for his age; he was only five years old, but could already read a little, and would watch birds and other animals around their home for hours at a time.
As Phineas pondered his children’s fates, his wife was more concerned with their new child, who was emerging from her. Phineas held her hand, and smiled, and told her it would all be alright. Doctor Hilel told her simply to push. Hilel was a clinical man, not one for niceties. Phineas imagined he’d be a good military surgeon, though Phineas had never been in the military himself.
Eventually, the baby came. It was a heavy little boy, shrieking and pink. Phineas looked down on the babe held tightly in his wife’s arms. He saw himself, as he had in Daniel. After a while, Phineas picked up the boy himself.
“What a little
Shtarker! Just like his papa!”
It was as such that Joel Hoffman was welcomed into the world.
[1] Not organized pogroms or anything, but antisemitism certainly did increase in Prussia and friendly nations after Bismarck's death ITTL
I promise, these 'slice of life' segments are relevant.