Seems like yesterday that the fellows and I set foot upon American soil. Was a jolly good time we had for the first fortnight or so. After that it turns out that while there is no hunger around here, at least not for as long as you have the coin as to pay for a full belly, people find other reasons to go rioting about.

Some time in April, word has it, there was a riot a couple of states to the west (not a hard thing since the city is at the eastern coast) about elections and which party to support. While a good man is put in chains of servitude back home they take the idea to a whole new level over here. They use actual chains! At first I thought the boys were kidding when they told me. Not so! Dead serious they are. I had already been wondering why the black fellows never looked up and into anyone’s eyes.

I’ll be damned if I ever teach Luke to treat people like that. Good and hard work should set a man free, working his soil to feed his loved ones. Over here doing just that gets you beaten and whipped over being to slow when you’re stumbling because you broke a leg and nobody bothered to send for a doctor, let alone have you go see one on your own.

Can’t help but wonder what any man would have to go through to treat another like this. Wonder if it could happen to me. And I wonder whether it’s the same way further to the west.

I’ve written to Grian the moment I set foot onto the Americas. Of course I left out the part with the slaving and all. Hardly an effort. Still thought they were telling me fairy tales back then. I’ll have to find a nice good place first before I even think about bringing her and the babe here. Who knows? Maybe they’ll do it like the English and figure it’d be nice to have Irish slaves as well.