#group transportation virginia

[simplelimos12]

Make the Most of Your 10% Off Charter Bus Booking in Fairfax, VA

While organizing a group trip can be difficult, hiring charter buses in Fairfax County can make it simpler and more economical, especially when you take advantage of our exclusive first-time booking discount of 10%! Here's how to get the most out of your Fairfax, Virginia, inexpensive charter bus package.

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For more information click here to read more

[paintyoureyeswithavividmind]

close to home | chapter twenty seven

close to home | chapter twenty seven

plot: the reader throws herself into work to keep her grief at bay, and helps get everyone ready for their journey north

series masterlist

Pairing: Eventual Daryl Dixon x f!reader Word Count: 2,496 Warnings: violence, blood, typical twd, A/N: thank you for reading!!!

It had been two days since Beth’s death, and every day started out the same. You were okay when you woke up, then you remembered, and you wanted to cry. Then you were busy with the day and were able to get through it. Then, you lay down to sleep and remembered all over again and cried. Then it would repeat itself. 

You learned about Rick’s plans on going to Virginia for Beth, and you immediately agreed to it. You wanted to honor your little cousin in the only way you knew how. You wanted her death to mean something. If you got Noah back to his family, his home, then it would. 

But the group had things to do before the big move. You needed better transportation, and you needed supplies. So on the last day before you left, you were all busy getting ready. 

Two supply groups were formed and would head in opposite directions. You’d travel twenty-five miles, see what you could get, and then come back. You were all due before sunset, and if you weren’t back, the remaining group would come looking. 

You were with Michonne, Carol, Rick, and Daryl. Glenn, Maggie, Rosita, Sasha, and Tara would be the second group. Carl, Eugene, Tyreese, and Abraham would stay back at the campsite with Judith and Tora, and would wait. Rick wanted you to stay back, but you couldn’t. Besides, you were feeling better. Physically, at least. 

Your group took one of the cars, the other group took the other car, and the campsite group stayed with the truck. It would offer the most protection in case something happened. 

You were sitting in the backseat with Michonne and Carol and had been for a while now. The road was mostly clear, and after about fifteen minutes of Rick’s crazy driving, you approached a town. 

“I’m thinkin’ we divide into two groups. We need food, water, and gas. We need stuff for Judith, too.” Rick said as he parked the car. “We also need some cars. The van will hold a decent amount of us, but we’ll need two more cars. I don’t think this one is makin’ the trip, and I’d rather not get stuck on the road with it.”

You climbed out of the car, your hand gripping your machete as you spotted a lone walker. You waited a second before approaching it, taking it down quickly. The rest of the group was taking out some supplies the group had scavenged the past few days--which was nearly nothing, though Rosita scored big when she found some empty gas containers. 

“Michonne and I will look for food. You three try and get your hands on a car. Meet back here at midday, and we’ll reassess if we want to go back in for more.” Rick said. 

You all nodded and made the journey into the town. It mainly seemed deserted, with a few walkers here and there that were quickly taken out. Soon, Michonne and Rick bid their goodbyes, and the three of you were left to scavenge. 

Twenty minutes later, you were breathing deeply and covering the sore wound as Carol took the last walker down. It’d only taken a few minutes but it felt like more. 

“There’s gotta be keys inside the shop,” Carol said. “You two pick a car, and then we’ll try and figure it out from there. I’m going to try and siphon some gas. Hollar if you need help.”

The three of you split up as you searched the small car dealership. When you’d seen the logo of a common car manufacturer, you felt like it was a sign from God. The lot was pretty full, and most car dealerships had cars with full tanks. 

You returned to where most of the SUVs were, Daryl, walking slowly behind you and making sure nothing was around. Your gun was heavy and solid against your thigh, and you drummed your fingers against it a few times as you walked. 

Your eyes scanned the few remaining SUVs, and you smiled when you saw the biggest one. It was an old Acadia, and it reminded you of the one your mom used to drive. You walked up to the door, wiping dirt away with your hand and then wiping your hand on your pants. 

“This will hold seven of us. We got seventeen, including Judith….” You trailed off, checking to see if the door was unlocked. It was, and you stuck your head into the car. “Seems like it was pretty new.”

Daryl walked to the passenger side door and looked in the glove box and visors. A pair of keys fell out, and you smiled at Daryl. He handed them to you, and you started the car. It took a second, but it started, and you sighed with relief. 

“Tank is full, which is a relief. You might want to check the engine. It's been here since the start. Imma look for another seven-seater.”

Daryl nodded, “Shouting distance,”

You rolled your eyes but nodded before leaving. It was quiet, and the dealership seemed mostly untouched--which you were thankful for. You glanced back at Daryl, watching him sort through what was probably a dusty engine. You paused momentarily, watching the muscles in his arm contort as he looked through the machine. 

Shaking your head, you looked across the lot to Carol, who was siphoning the gas from a car. You then walked around, looking for another bigger car to hopefully get you all to Virginia. Unfortunately, the rest of the SUVs weren’t worth trying, so you helped Daryl get the car out of the spot and park it at the front of the lot. Carol met up with you with a full container of gas, and after setting it in the trunk, you drove the car off the lot. 

“Okay, so we got a car and some gas. We just need food and water. I think we should see if we can get some clothes. I’ve got blood on here that’s so old and stained that nothing gets it out.” You said as you drove. 

“There’s a Goodwill; looks like a coffee shop next to it,” Carol said, leaning into the front and pointing. 

“We should see if we could get Judith some clothes too. Maybe a car seat, too, if we could. I’m sure Rick would love that,” You said. 

After parking, Carol went to the coffee shop while you and Daryl checked out the front of the store. A few walkers dumped into the glass, and you and Daryl worked carefully to kill them. It wasn’t a very big store anyway. 

“Smells like shit in here,” You said, looking around the store. 

He snorted, “Ain’ like it always smells.”

You nodded in agreement and walked down the aisles of clothes. You started at the pants, grabbing a few pairs the group's women could use and stuffing them into a bag you’d found at the front of the shop. You weren’t sure what everyone’s sizes were, and everyone being nearly starved didn't help. You did your best to fill up some clean shirts, too, even a few sports bras you hoped would be good. 

You found a few things for yourself to change into, and after making sure Daryl was across the store, you quickly changed.

A few more minutes of searching later, you approached Daryl. He was grabbing a few plastic water containers in the kitchen area. “Here, I found these for you. Will these fit you?” You asked, showing him the clothes you’d found for him. 

“What?”

“You need new clothes. Those ones are disgusting. Go, try them on. I’m going to look for Judith. And don’t argue with me.”

You handed them over to him and went to the baby area without another word. You quickly grabbed a few onesies, shorts, and shirts that would fit her, with room to grow. You grabbed some socks and shoes that looked right. Unfortunately, there was no baby food, but this was something. You even found a car seat, and added it to the growing pile of supplies you made in the middle of the store. 

When Daryl met you, he had changed into newer clothes. They were just a pair of dark pants, a shirt he’d already torn the sleeves off, and his vest. But he looked better. 

“Did you grab some stuff for all the guys?” You asked. 

“Huh?”

You sighed, shaking your head. “We should grab some shirts for the guys. So they could change too.”

“I ain’ doin’ all that,”

You rolled your eyes and walked to the men’s section. It took about ten minutes for you to find stuff that would fit them all--since they were all different sizes. But you had enough shirts for them and wouldn’t even bother trying to guess pants sizes. At least all the women in the group were similar. And you had no idea how to look for men’s clothes. 

After adding them to the pile, you walked towards the employee door and slowly pushed through, checking the small break room before entering. There were some dusty tables and two vending machines in the back. You started laughing when you saw them. They were still nearly full. 

“Daryl!” You yelled, grabbing your machete. 

The door swung open after a few seconds, and he came in with his bow raised but lowered it when he saw your face. 

“Food,” You said, “Help me?”

Daryl looked at you, of course, unspoken on his lips. So he nodded and took the arrow out of the crossbow and then used the butt of it to break open the glass. 

“Careful,” He said quietly as you reached in, pulling out everything and shoving it into one of your bags. 

“Mhm,” You hummed, grabbing candy bars, bags of chips, pop-tarts, and granola bars. It wasn’t the healthiest of foods, but it was more than you had. You grabbed a blueberry pop-tart and ripped it open. It was stale when you took a bite, but you moaned at the taste anyway. “Oh my God,” 

Daryl shook his head in amusement as he busted the other vending machine and pulled out all the water bottles. 

“Here, eat,” You said, handing him the other pop-tart. He tried to refuse, but you forced it on him. “You gotta take care of yourself, too, Daryl. Hand me one of those sodas.”

“They probably taste like shit,” He said. 

You shrugged, taking the soda from him and sitting on one of the tables. A meal of stale pop-tarts and flat soda wasn’t what you had in mind today, but it was like finding a little slice of heaven in the hell you’ve been in. 

Once you finished your food and made Daryl drink, you went to grab the bags. The one with the water bottles was too heavy, and you barely lifted it off the ground. “Ugh,” You groaned. “You take this one.”

Daryl laughed quietly and you looked over at him. Hearing him laugh was a rarity and you loved when he did. 

“C’mon, Carol’s probably wonderin’ where we at,” He said. 

It took you two a good few minutes to load up all your supplies in the trunk, and you were sweating and aching when it was over. The truck was packed, and you tossed the car seat in the back. Before Daryl closed the trunk, you swiped a bag of chips. 

“It’s our reward for all the work we did,” You said, opening it up. Before you could even take a chip, Daryl swiped it from you and took some himself. “Asshole,” You said. 

He laughed again and handed the bag back to you after taking a few more. 

“Bags are mostly air anyway, so you owe me,” You said. 

“Let’s go check on Carol,” He said. 

You followed him as you ate handfuls at a time. You’d been starving since yesterday, and you couldn’t stop yourself from eating the shitty chips. 

The coffee shop was small, and Carol was inside. She’d found a decent amount of supplies in here. She’d found a few jugs of vegetable oil, cornmeal, and grains. An industrial size thing of oats. There were two can openers and some lighters. Nothing that you’d all be able to just open and eat, but it was better than nothing. 

“I found you some clothes,” You told Carol, grabbing some of the supplies. 

Carol smiled at you, “You’re my new favorite.”

***

By midday, you were waiting in the new car with all your supplies at the meeting point. Michonne and Rick weren’t back yet, but there was still time. You were sitting on top of the front of the car, leaning against the front window. Daryl had gone off into the woods to see if he could do some hunting for a few minutes. 

Carol was pacing back and forth on the road. 

“They’ll be back. It’s Rick and Michonne.” You said. 

Carol nodded, “Yeah, I know. I hope they found water.” 

You sat up and squinted in the sunlight. “We’ll figure it out if they didn’t.” 

Carol turned back at you. “You told Daryl.”

You knew exactly what she was talking about. “I needed to… needed to tell someone, you know?”

She nodded and crossed her arms. “I understand. I’m glad. He asked about it. It was nice talking to someone about it.” She admitted. 

You were about to lean back when you heard a car and watched as a car sped over the hill toward you. You didn’t need to even attempt to worry about who it was--Rick’s driving was a dead giveaway. 

The car slowed as they approached, and when Rick put it in park, they both got out. They looked like they had a bit of trouble but were okay. 

“How’d it go?” You asked them. 

“We found a small apartment building. Probably only ten units. Single floor.” Rick said, “We only cleared a room before heading back. There are probably two dozen or so walkers there. Where’s Daryl?”

“He went to see if he could catch anything. He’ll be back soon. He said he’d be gone for twenty.” Carol said. 

“Did you get stuff from the apartment?” You asked. 

Michonne nodded, “Yeah, they had a decent amount of food.” You knew exactly what that meant. Whoever it was, they killed themselves early on. 

You slide off the front of the car, ignoring the slight ache on your side. “So you wanna clear it?”

“I’d like to. We have the time. How did you guys do? I see you got a car.”

“We found a decent amount. Oh, I got some clean shirts. Michonne, even got some pants.” You said, “Not for you, Rick, sorry.”

“I’ll take a shirt. You won’t see me complaining,”

[arctic-hands]

More than 400 food products sold under dozens of brand names were recalled due to possible Listeria contamination, the US Food and Drug Administration announced Friday.

The recall by Fresh Ideation Food Group LLC includes ready-to-eat sandwiches, salads, yogurts, wraps and other products sold in nine states and Washington, DC, from January 24 through January 30.

...

The recalled foods were distributed in Connecticut, the District of Columbia,Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia, according to the FDA.

The products -- which included items like bacon, egg and cheddar muffins, breakfastcroissants, tuna and chicken sandwiches, and fruit cups -- were sold in stores, vending machines and by transportation providers, according to the company.

"All recalled products have a Fresh Creative Cuisine label and/or identifier on the bottom of the label with the Fresh Creative Cuisine name and a fresh through or sell through date ranging from January 31, 2023 through February 6, 2023," the company said.

[mariacallous]

Vasectomies are on the rise, but not all men are ready to commit to a permanent form of birth control. While the surgery can sometimes be reversed, it's expensive and doesn’t always work. What if there was another option?

Virginia-based biotech company Contraline is testing a new type of male contraceptive akin to a vasectomy but made to be fully reversible. Today, the company announced that surgeons in Australia have safely performed the procedure on 23 men in an early-stage trial.

The approach uses a soft, water-based substance called a hydrogel that’s injected into the vas deferens—the pair of tubes in the male reproductive tract that transport mature sperm. Within 30 days of being inserted, the gel led to a more than 99 percent reduction in the number of moving sperm, according to the company. No serious side effects have been reported.

Kevin Eisenfrats, cofounder and CEO of Contraline, says it’s like an IUD for men. “Right now, there is nothing out there that’s long-lasting and reversible for men,” he says. “This is made for people who are not ready to have kids, are spacing out having kids, or think they are done having kids but maybe not ready for that permanent option.”

In a vasectomy, the vas deferens are cut and sealed so that sperm can’t travel from the testicles to the urethra, the tube inside the penis.

Contraline’s method involves making a small piercing in the scrotum and using a handheld injector to push the hydrogel through a catheter that’s connected to the vas deferens. The catheter is then taken out, and the puncture heals on its own.

Once injected, the hydrogel is meant to block sperm from getting into semen. Eisenfrats likens the gel to a coffee filter, where sperm are the coffee grounds. Sperm can’t get through the filter, but semen, a liquid, can still pass through.

Men in the trial ranged from age 25 to 65 and were placed into two groups that received different amounts of hydrogel: a lower volume and a higher one. Implanting the gel took about 20 minutes and was done under local anesthesia, unless someone chose to be sedated instead.

Eisenfrats says sperm concentration and movement in the men are comparable to levels seen with a vasectomy. “We’re seeing that this is working.”

The purpose of the current trial is to assess the gel’s safety and longevity, not how well it prevents pregnancy. Participants were asked to use a back-up form of birth control while being enrolled in the trial.

The gel is designed to dissolve at the end of its lifetime, so the men will be followed for two years to determine how long it takes for that to happen. Eisenfrats says the goal is to have a product that lasts one to two years.

But men might want to restore their fertility before that time frame, so Contraline wants to show that it can safely reverse the procedure. The company has tested the reversibility of the gel in dogs, showing that sperm counts and sperm quality rebounded after removing the gel. It plans to launch a second trial this year to test the on-demand reversibility in people. Only men who said they do not want to have children were included in the initial trial.

While the study is small, Heather Vahdat, executive director of the Male Contraceptive Initiative, a nonprofit based in North Carolina, is encouraged by the safety profile so far. Her organization funds research into nonhormonal male birth control and has contributed funding to Contraline. “Reversibility seems very feasible,” she says.

The nonprofit Parsemus Foundation has been researching a similar gel, called Vasalgel, for several years, but has faced delays getting it to human trials. The San Francisco-based health organization partnered with a biotech company, NEXT Life Sciences, in 2022 to further develop Vasalgel. In a 2017 paper, researchers with the foundation showed that Vasalgel could be flushed out in rabbits with an injection of baking soda. Sperm flow returned in the animals after reversal.

“These are not complex components in these polymers. They’re pretty well characterized, and we know how they behave,” Vahdat says.

But any medical procedure could cause side effects or complications. Raevti Bole, a urologist specializing in men’s health at the Cleveland Clinic who’s not involved in the trial, says an injection into the vas deferens could come with a risk of skin infection, mild discomfort, or minor bruising, she says.

And there are still unknowns about the gel itself. While hydrogels are biocompatible and generally safe, Bole says she would want to know if Contraline’s product could cause permanent scarring or changes to the vas deferens and whether repeat injections could be done safely.

One practical consideration is how doctors will monitor patients to make sure that the gel is still working. “Even if the risk of pregnancy is low, I would want to know the risk to counsel my patients and allow them to compare their options,” Bole says.

Contraline’s gel is still years from becoming commercially available. The company will need to conduct trials of hundreds of men and their female partners to test its efficacy in preventing pregnancy. Eisenfrats says the company aims to launch a larger trial in the US in the next few years.

Meanwhile, there are other forms of male birth control in the pipeline. The US National Institutes of Health and the Population Council, an international nonprofit focused on health and social sciences, are testing a hormone-based gel that men apply daily to their shoulders to block sperm production. And in December, a small trial launched in the UK to test a hormone-free contraceptive pill developed by YourChoice Therapeutics. It prevents sperm production by blocking access to vitamin A.

YourChoice and Contraline are avoiding hormones because they tend to produce unpleasant side effects. A previous trial of an injectable hormonal contraceptive for men was stopped early when a safety monitoring board found a high number of adverse events, including acne, mood disorders, increased sexual drive, and muscle pain. The rate of side effects was high compared to what women typically experience while on hormonal birth control.

There’s evidence that men are interested in trying new types of contraception. In a US survey conducted in 2017, the Male Contraceptive Initiative found that 85 percent of the 1,500 male respondents aged 18 to 44 were interested in preventing their partner from getting pregnant.

“Men want to step up. They’re realizing that their partners have all these effects from birth control,” Eisenfrats says. “They need more options to take charge of their reproduction.”

[ericaportfolio]

TW: For references/mentions of abuse. You all are going to hate this character.

After some of the last crazy few weeks, I finally finished another character sheet based on the art from the Hello Puppets games with another OC I created if the show did not get canceled, no fire, and no possessed murder puppets ever happened. This character was created when the Lackadaisy Pilot came out, but I added some Helluva Boss (don't watch the show if you are under 18 kids, please wait) mafia episode influences.

On the outside, Francis Nack, Father of Nick Nack, runs an Arcade Casino in one of the cities near the town the Handeemen lives. But in reality, Francis is the French Mob Boss and uses his Arcade Casino as a coverup for a money racketeering scheme. Sadly, after years of emotional and physical abuse, when Nick was about to turn 18 in a month, he was secretly approached by a banker who was hired by his missing mother, Jancis, years ago to give Nick his inheritance from her to use if he wanted to get away from the crime family and use that money for anything he wants to pursue. Obviously, Nick took the money, went to an art college, and years later joined the newly formed Handeemen group that later became a show. Blessing or a curse, on the premiere episode of Season 3, when the Handeemen accepted an offer to help a kid win a pinball tournament, they are suddenly picked up by a mysterious luxurious travel escort transportation. To Nick's (even Virginia's) dismay, it turned out that the pinball tournament was taking place at the same Arcade Casino with Francis waiting for them. As Francis's premiere episode progresses, his intentions are made clear becoming the main antagonist for Season 3. Yep, Season 3 became a French parody of The Godfather.

Historically, the law chased the Mafia out of Las Vegas during the Mid-1980s. Whoever got the character approved by the censors must have been the many therapists at the time when PSA episodes really started to kick in the late 1980s/early 1990s to spread awareness of child abuse because the Handeemen fandom was theorizing if Nick came from an abusive home, but nobody was expecting The Godfather route. So what better way to bring awareness than by making the abuser the main antagonist for the season. Francis is literally the French version of The Godfather. Along with Lackadaisy and Helluva Boss, his biggest inspiration came from the 2003 French animated comedy, The Triplets of Belleville, which is a CLASSIC!!! Though be warned of mature content in the film since the movie is for audiences thirteen and up. The mafia in that film is similar to the Nack Mob in this AU. Like father like son, they are almost alike, except for height and Francis is commonly nicknamed Scarface for his scar. Francis originally had Brown Hair that faded over time. To get the season approved by the producers and the censors, instead of having a regular Casino as a backdrop, they instead went with an Arcade Casino with arcade games, pinballs, and fair games in a classic Las Vegas-like setting.

Nick's mom, Jancis Nack, was a mixture of Riley and Daisy with Audrey Hepburn influences. Speaking of Daisy, Jancis's hair was inspired by Daisy's blueprints from the Hello Puppets games. Nick's mom's disappearance becomes one of the biggest mysteries in the show, some thinking Francis had something to do with it. So yeah, Nick has 🎵 parent/daddy issues🎵 everybody!

[todaysdocument]

Manifest for Brig Virginia of Baltimore

Record Group 36: Records of the U.S. Customs ServiceSeries: Slave ManifestsFile Unit: September 1823-December 1823

MANIFEST of Negros, Mulattos, and ^free persons of Color, taken on board the Brig Virginia of Baltimore - whereof John Staples - is Master, burthen 23.9 - tons, to be transported to the Port of New Orleans - in the District of Mississippi - for the purpose of ^Residing in the City of New Orleans [struck through: being sold or disposed of as Slaves or to be held to Service or Labour] Sex. Height. Number of Entry. Names. Male. Female. Age. Feet. Inches. Whether Negro, Mulatto, or person of Color. Owner or Shipper's Name and Residence 1 Lucy Boyer Woman 45 5 1 light mulatto Lucy Boyer for Herself & children--Shipper 2 Robert D. Smith Male 19 5 2 brown 3 Caroline Boyer Girl 13 4 10 lightish mulatto Emily Boyer do. 9 4 2 light mulatto District of Baltimore, Port of Baltimore, the 1 day of November 1823 [illegible - struck through] I John Staples - Master of the Brig Virginia - - do solemnly, sincerely, and truly swear [struck through: each of us] to the best of our ^my knowledge and belief, that the above described persons of Color have not been imported into the United States since the first day of January, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight; and that under the Laws of the State of Maryland, they are not held to Service or Labour, as Slaves and are entitled to freedom under these laws, [illegible, struck through]--So Help me God. her Sworn to this 18 day of Lucy [hand drawn X] Boyer November 1823 before mark Jas. H McCulloch COLLECTOR.District of Baltimore, Port of Baltimore, the 18 day of November --- 1823 I Jas. H. McCulloch Collector of the District of Baltimore, do hereby Certify that the within is a true copy of the Original Manifest or List of ^free persons of color^, left on file in this office; and I do further certify, that [illegible, blacked through] John Staples --- Master of the within mentioned Brig Virginia ----- ha^th[struck through: ve] this day made oath, in manner directed in the ninth Section of the Act of Congress, passed the Second day of March 1807, prohibiting the Importation of Slaves into the United States --- I do hereby authorise the said Master to proceed with the said free ^persons of color [illegible, blacked out] named as within, and being Four ---- in number, to the Port of New Orleans ---- in the State of Louisiana Given under my Hand at the Custom-House of Baltimore, the date above written. Jas. H. McCulloch Coll.r [Collector] [Handwritten in black in to lower left of McCulloch's signature] I John Daly [Certifie?] that I examined the within list And finde the Same to agree John Daly Inspr [Inspector] Below Decbr (December) 10th 1823 [written upside down] 10 December 1823 Brig Virginia Staples From Baltimore Slave manifest

[archivist-crow]

On this day:

BEALE TREASURE

On May 9, 1822, news of a hidden treasure arrived for Virginia innkeeper Robert Morris. The letter was from Thomas Beale, who had left a padlocked iron box in Morris's keeping the previous winter. The letter instructed Morris to hold the box for ten years, and if no one called for it in that time, Morris was to open it. Beale then vanished. Twenty-three years later, Morris opened the box. It contained a letter and three sheets of encrypted paper. The letter told the following story.

Beale had put together a group "who were fond of adventure, and if mixed with a little danger all the more acceptable, determined to visit the great Western plains and enjoy ourselves in hunting buffalo, grizzly bears, and such other game…” Beale's expedition of thirty individuals had tracked a herd of buffalo to a ravine. There the group discovered incredibly rich veins of gold and silver; which they mined over the next eighteen months. Beale transported the wealth to a cache in a cave which they all knew. Unfortunately, when Beale arrived he found that the cave was being used by local farmers to store vegetables. So he found another place for the treasure.

“I have deposited…in an excavation…six feet below the surface of the ground...ten hundred and fourteen pounds of gold and thirty eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver deposited Nov. Eighteen Nineteen ... Dec. Eighteen Twenty one... nineteen hundred and eighty eight of silver, also jewels... The above is securely packed in iron pots with iron covers the vault is roughly lined with stone and the vessels rest on solid stone and are covered with others.”

The encoded pieces of paper contained instructions for finding the treasure and how it should be dispersed to the heirs of the original thirty adventurers. Unfortunately, neither Morris nor anyone else ever found Beale's hiding place or the treasure.

Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009

[justforbooks]

Best crime and thrillers of 2023

Given this year’s headlines, it’s unsurprising that our appetite for cosy crime continues unabated, with the latest title in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, The Last Devil to Die (Viking), topping the bestseller lists. Janice Hallett’s novels The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, which also features a group of amateur crime-solvers, and The Christmas Appeal (both Viper) have proved phenomenally popular, too.

Hallett’s books, which are constructed as dossiers – transcripts, emails, WhatsApp messages and the like – are part of a growing trend of experimentation with form, ranging from Cara Hunter’s intricate Murder in the Family (HarperCollins), which is structured around the making of a cold case documentary, to Gareth Rubin’s tête-bêche The Turnglass (Simon & Schuster). Books that hark back to the golden age of crime, such as Tom Mead’s splendidly tricksy locked-room mystery Death and the Conjuror (Head of Zeus), are also on the rise. The late Christopher Fowler, author of the wonderful Bryant & May detective series, who often lamented the sacrifice of inventiveness and fun on the altar of realism, would surely have approved. Word Monkey (Doubleday), published posthumously, is his funny and moving memoir of a life spent writing popular fiction.

Notable debuts include Callum McSorley’s Glaswegian gangland thriller Squeaky Clean (Pushkin Vertigo); Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of an Eye (Simon & Schuster), a police procedural with an AI detective; Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (Pushkin Vertigo), featuring queer punk nun investigator Sister Holiday; and the caustically funny Thirty Days of Darkness (Orenda) by Jenny Lund Madsen (translated from the Danish by Megan E Turney).

There have been welcome additions to series, including a third book, Case Sensitive (Zaffre), for AK Turner’s forensic investigator Cassie Raven, and a second, The Wheel of Doll (Pushkin Vertigo), for Jonathan Ames’s LA private eye Happy Doll, who is shaping up to be the perfect hardboiled 21st-century hero.

Other must-reads for fans of American crime fiction include Ozark Dogs (Headline) by Eli Cranor, a powerful story of feuding Arkansas families; SA Cosby’s Virginia-set police procedural All the Sinners Bleed (Headline); Megan Abbott’s nightmarish Beware the Woman (Virago); and Rebecca Makkai’s foray into very dark academia, I Have Some Questions for You (Fleet). There are shades of James Ellroy in Jordan Harper’s Hollywood-set tour de force Everybody Knows (Faber), while Raymond Chandler’s hero Philip Marlowe gets a timely do-over from Scottish crime doyenne Denise Mina in The Second Murderer (Harvill Secker).

As Mick Herron observed in his Slow Horses origin novel, The Secret Hours (Baskerville), there’s a long list of spy novelists who have been pegged as the heir to John le Carré. Herron must be in pole position for principal legatee, but it’s been a good year for espionage generally: standout novels include Matthew Richardson’s The Scarlet Papers (Michael Joseph), John Lawton’s Moscow Exile (Grove Press) and Harriet Crawley’s The Translator (Bitter Lemon).

Historical crime has also been well served. Highlights include Emma Flint’s excellent Other Women (Picador), based on a real 1924 murder case; Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s story of a fortune teller’s quest for identity in Georgian high society, The Square of Sevens (Mantle); and SG MacLean’s tale of Restoration revenge and retribution, The Winter List (Quercus). There are echoes of Chester Himes in Viper’s Dream (No Exit) by Jake Lamar, which begins in 1930s Harlem, while Palace of Shadows (Mantle) by Ray Celestin, set in the late 19th century, takes the true story of American weapons heiress Sarah Winchester’s San Jose mansion and transports it to Yorkshire, with chillingly gothic results.

The latest novel in Vaseem Khan’s postcolonial India series, Death of a Lesser God (Hodder), is also well worth the read, as are Deepti Kapoor’s present-day organised crime saga Age of Vice (Fleet) and Parini Shroff’s darkly antic feminist revenge drama The Bandit Queens (Atlantic).

While psychological thrillers are thinner on the ground than in previous years, the quality remains high, with Liz Nugent’s complex and heartbreaking tale of abuse, Strange Sally Diamond (Penguin Sandycove), and Sarah Hilary’s disturbing portrait of a family in freefall, Black Thorn (Macmillan), being two of the best.

Penguin Modern Classics has revived its crime series, complete with iconic green livery, with works by Georges Simenon, Dorothy B Hughes and Ross MacDonald. There have been reissues by other publishers, too – forgotten gems including Celia Fremlin’s 1959 holiday‑from-hell novel, Uncle Paul (Faber), and Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground (Vintage). Finished in 1942 but only now published in its entirety, the latter is an account of an innocent man who takes refuge from racist police officers in the sewers of Chicago – part allegorical, part brutally realistic and, unfortunately, wholly topical.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[mogai-sunflowers]

MOGAI BHM- Day 4!

happy Black History Month! today, i’m talking about the Freedom Rides, which took place during the Civil Rights Movement!

The Journey of Reconciliation (the “First Freedom Ride”)-

[Image ID: A picture of a large gray plaque that takes up most of the photo, with tree cover visible in the background. The plaque says:

“JOURNEY OF RECONCILIATION: In 1947, the Congress of Racial Equality & local citizens, black & white, protested bus segregation. Setting out from Washington, D.C., “freedom riders” tested compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring segregation on interstate buses. On April 13, riders arrived at the local bus station then twenty yards W. A mob attacked one rider. Four others were arrested and sentenced to 30 days on chain gangs.”

End ID.]

The Freedom Rides were first born in 1947 with a bus journey called the “Journey of Reconciliation”, also called the “First Freedom Ride”. The Supreme Court had just released a decision in Morgan v. Virginia (1946) that declared segregation on interstate bus travel to be unconstitutional and illegal- but, as the Supreme Court had a well-established track record of being very slow and lax to actually enforce its decisions, members of the groups CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) and the FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation) banded together to start the Journey of Reconciliation to test the Supreme Court’s decision. The ride was an interracial bus journey across state lines in the South, but unlike the Freedom Rides it would inspire a decade and a half later, it didn’t attract much attention. Some 15 years later, its impact would be realized.

The Freedom Rides-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of a group of 6 people, two white and four Black, standing in front of a bus holding signs. The signs say “Freedom’s wheels are rolling”, “End segregation and terror in the south”, “The law of the land is our demand”, “Enforce the Constitution 13th, 14th, 15th amendments”, “Take a stand with the law of the land- freedom now”, and “More and more everyday ride the freedom way”. End ID.]

In 1960, activism, including the activism of two Black students, John Lewis and Bernard Lafayette, who integrated their bus ride home from college, led to another court case, Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which banned segregation in all facilities that were provided for interstate travelers, which included bus terminals, restaurants, and bathrooms. Inspired by the Journey of Reconciliation, as well as other movements like the sit in movement and bus boycotts, in 1961, student activists from CORE, joined by John Lewis, once again decided to organize interracial, interstate bus rides to challenge segregation in bus terminals and on buses in interstate travel and test the enforcement of Boynton v. Virginia. 

Organized by activist James Farmer, 12 Freedom Riders rode on Greyhound and Trailways buses from Washington D.C to New Orleans, Louisiana, leaving on May 4, 1961. The Greyhound bus Freedom Riders were met with extreme violence on their trip. Their tires were slashed, members beaten violently, and when attempting to flee, their bus was firebombed, forcing the Riders into yet another mob of whites who attacked them viciously. This effectively ended the trip of the Greyhound Freedom Riders. Similarly, the Trailways Freedom Riders were beaten violently in South Carolina.

The sheer horror of this violence caught a lot of attention- national attention. Activist Diane Nash organized a group of Freedom Riders from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the SNCC, to reinforce the Trailways riders on their journey. Her Riders, along with the Trailways Riders, were arrested by a white supremacist police chief, Eugene “Bull” Connor, when they reached Birmingham, and were then transported to and abandoned on the Tennessee state line. From this point on, the amazing activists, led by Nash, made the 100 mile journey by themselves back to their base in Nashville to reorganize.

Then, the growing group of Freedom Riders traveled back to Birmingham, and then on to Montgomery, where they were shown on national TV to be beaten and violently attacked. James Farmer helped them all make it to Jackson, Mississippi, where they were all promptly arrested and subjected to horrible abuses while incarcerated. More and more activists began to join them until eventually, the group of Freedom Riders that began as 12, was around 300.

This led the Kennedy Administration to finally have the ICC ban segregation once and for all- and after hundreds more students and activists joined from across the country, occupying jails with the original Riders, the national outcry over the violence led to that decision finally being enforced on November 1, 1961. The Freedom Riders had succeeded in desegregating interstate bus travel.

Sources-

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/freedom-rides

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/freedom-rides-1961/

[zenaidamacrouras1]

Okay real talk I care about this issue so much I wrote a 120k fanfic about it. I'm so fucking pissed that low income rural communities and poor peoples health is LITERALLY the bargaining chip in US budget negotiations.

To love a thing and fight for it is to create a path for grief.

Major natural gas pipeline in West Virginia expedited as part of debt ceiling deal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/27/raise-debt-ceiling-budget/

In a surprise revealed Sunday night, the debt ceiling deal includes provisions to expedite a major natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia that has long been championed by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

The Mountain Valley Pipeline, which has been strongly opposed by environmental groups, would transport Appalachian shale gas about 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia if built. The company has said it would carry 2 billion cubic feet of gas a day to help support domestic energy and liquefied natural gas, but environmental advocates say the project would impact hundreds of streams, wetlands and several miles of national forest land.

The proposal backed by Biden and McCarthy says federal agencies “shall issue all permits and verifications necessary” within 21 days of the legislation’s enactment to complete the pipeline’s construction.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence’s house in Indiana.

The classified documents were discovered at Pence’s new home in Carmel, Indiana, by a lawyer for Pence in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in President Joe Biden’s private office and residence, the sources said. The discovery comes after Pence has repeatedly said he did not have any classified documents in his possession.

It is not yet clear what the documents are related to or their level of sensitivity or classification.

Pence’s team notified congressional leaders and relevant committees of the discovery on Tuesday.

Pence asked his lawyer with experience handling classified material to conduct the search of his home out of an abundance of caution. Sources said that the attorney, Matt Morgan, began going through four boxes stored at Pence’s house last week, finding a small number of documents with classified markings.

Pence’s lawyer immediately alerted the National Archives, the sources said. In turn, the Archives informed the Justice Department.

A lawyer for Pence told CNN that the FBI requested to pick up the documents with classified markings that evening, and Pence agreed. Agents from the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis picked up the documents from Pence’s home, the lawyer said.

On Monday, Pence’s legal team drove the boxes back to Washington, DC, and handed them over to the Archives to review the rest of the material for compliance with the Presidential Records Act.

In a letter to the National Archives obtained by CNN, Pence’s representative to the Archives Greg Jacob wrote that a “small number of documents bearing classified markings” were inadvertently boxed and transported to the vice president’s home.

“Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence,” Jacob wrote. “Vice President Pence understands the high importance of protecting sensitive and classified information and stands ready and willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”

The classified material was stored in boxes that first went to Pence’s temporary home in Virginia before they were moved to Indiana, according to the sources. The boxes were not in a secure area, but they were taped up and were not believed to have been opened since they were packed, according to Pence’s attorney. Once the classified documents were discovered, the sources said they were placed inside a safe located in the house.

Pence’s Washington, DC, advocacy group office was also searched, Pence’s lawyer said, and no classified material or other records covered by the Presidential Records Act was discovered.

The news about Pence come as special counsels investigate the handling of classified documents by both Biden and former President Donald Trump. The revelations also come amid speculation that Pence is readying for a run at the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

Since the FBI searched Trump’s home in Florida for classified material in August with a search warrant, Pence has said that he had not retained any classified material upon leaving office. “No, not to my knowledge,” he told The Associated Press in August.

In November, Pence was asked by ABC News at his Indiana home whether he had taken any classified documents from the White House.

“I did not,” Pence responded.

“Well, there’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area,” Pence continued. “But I will tell you that I believe there had to be many better ways to resolve that issue than executing a search warrant at the personal residence of a former president of the United States.”

BOXES PACKED IN VP RESIDENCE AND WHITE HOUSE

While Pence’s vice presidential office in general did a rigorous job while he was leaving office of sorting through and turning over any classified material and unclassified material covered by the Presidential Records Act, these classified documents appear to have inadvertently slipped through the process because most of the materials were packed up separately from the vice president’s residence, along with Pence’s personal papers, the sources told CNN.

The vice president’s residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington has a secure facility for handling classified material along with other security, and it would be common for classified documents to be there for the vice president to review.

Some of the boxes at Pence’s Indiana home were packed up from the vice president’s residence, while some came from the White House in the final days of the Trump administration, which included last-minute things that did not go through the process the rest of Pence’s documents did.

The discovery of classified documents in Pence’s residence marks the third time in recent history in which a president or vice president has inappropriately possessed classified material after leaving office. Both Biden and Trump are now being investigated by separate special counsels for their handling of classified materials.

Sources familiar with the process say Pence’s discovery of classified documents after the Trump and Biden controversies would suggest a more systemic problem related to classified material and the Presidential Records Act, which requires official records from the White House to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of an administration.

On Friday, the FBI searched Biden’s Wilmington residence for additional classified material, an unprecedented search of a sitting president’s home that turned up six additional items containing classified markings. The search was conducted after Biden’s lawyers discovered classified material in Wilmington following the initial discovery of classified documents at Biden’s private think office in November.

Biden’s attorneys say they are fully cooperating with the Justice Department, seeking to draw a distinction from the Trump investigation.

Tuesday’s development was welcome news for Biden administration officials and allies. As one senior administration official put it: “It turns down the temperature on this being a Biden-only story.”

One hope, this official said, is that the discovery of classified documents at Pence’s home will help to underscore that Biden aides were not alone in making the mistake of packing up classified documents that should have been turned over to the Archives.

The development could also be used by the White House, the official said, to emphasize the importance of how the situation was handled once the classified documents were discovered.

Administration officials have maintained that lawyers working for the president did the right thing by immediately informing the Archives as soon as classified documents were first found in early November, drawing the distinction between the Biden legal team’s handling of the matter and the actions of Trump and his team.

The FBI obtained a search warrant to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August. Federal investigators took that step because they believed Trump had not turned over all classified material despite a subpoena and were concerned records at Mar-a-Lago were being moved around.

Still, Trump’s legal team also viewed the Pence development as positive for the former president, according to a source familiar with the matter. While the circumstances are different in each case, members of his legal team believe the developments will make it harder for prosecutors to justify bringing criminal charges against any of them, the source said.

“They are all now linked in a way,” the source said, referring to Pence, Biden and Trump.

Last week, Pence told Larry Kudlow in a Fox Business interview that he received the President’s Daily Brief at the Vice President’s residence.

“I’d rise early. I’d go to the safe where my military aide would place those classified materials. I’d pull them out, review them,” Pence said. “I’d receive a presentation to them and then, frankly, more often than not Larry, I would simply return them back to the file that I’d received them in. They went in commonly into what was called a burn bag that my military aide would gather and then destroy those classified materials—same goes in materials that I would receive at the White House.”

CONGRESSIONAL REACTION

Congressional leaders in both parties were stunned about the new revelations that Pence was also in possession of classified records at his home.

“I don’t understand this,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.

“The bottom line is I don’t know how this happened, we need to get to the bottom of it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “I don’t believe for a minute that Mike Pence is trying to intentionally compromise national security. But clearly we’ve got a problem here.”

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is investigating Biden’s classified documents, said in a statement that Pence reached out to him about the classified documents found at his home.

“He has agreed to fully cooperate with congressional oversight and any questions we have about the matter,” said Comer, adding that Pence’s transparency “stands in stark contrast” to the Biden administration’s response to Congress over the classified documents. Comer’s statement did not mention Trump’s classified documents.

The former president, however, came to Pence’s defense on Tuesday. “Mike Pence is an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!” Trump posted on his social media site.

[simplelimos12]

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[usafphantom2]

F-22 Raptors return to Poland 🇵🇱

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 04/16/2023 - 11:30 in Military

The U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor fighters arrived in Poland again, the Polish Ministry of Defense reported on Tuesday.

The group of fighters tried to cross the North Atlantic on April 6 and 7, but it was only on the third attempt on the 8th that the fifth-generation fighters arrived at the Powidz Air Base in Poland. However, there are conflicting reports about whether eight or nine jets completed the journey after some of the planned 12 failed to make the crossing.

"The U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor fighters landed in Poland," Minister Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.

“One of the most modern planes will cooperate with Polish pilots and will continue to provide support on NATO’s eastern flank,” Blaszczak said.

According to the U.S. European Command - U.S. African Command (USAFE-AFAFRICA), the planes that were transferred to Powidz, in western Poland, as part of a rotation mission, belong to the 94th Fighter Squadron at the Langley-Eustis base in Virginia, USA.

The Raptors are taking on the hunting mission of the F-15E Strike Eagles of the 48th Fighter Wing of the Lakenheath RAF Base in Suffolk, which has been performing this task since November 2022.

F-22 fighters were stationed in Poland until last October as part of a NATO mission designed to increase protection against air threats on the eastern flank of the alliance and in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions.

Tags: Military AviationF-22 RaptorNATO - North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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[1apiwe]

‘Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ.” — New Testament, Ephesians 6:5-8.

Somewhat improbably, slavery is in the news: the Dutch prime minister has apologised for his nation’s role in carrying it out, and the state of California is considering paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved persons. Do such things have meaning for South Africa and South Africans?

Just before Christmas 2022, Mark Rutte made news (probably the first time in many years that a Dutch prime minister has made international headlines) when he offered a formal apology for his country’s “slavery past”.

In so doing, he acknowledged that the legacy of slavery continued to generate “negative effects”, even if the Dutch had officially outlawed slavery in their possessions in 1863. Slavery had ended in the Netherlands itself some years earlier.

In his apology, Rutte said: “For centuries under Dutch state authority, human dignity was violated in the most horrific way possible… And successive Dutch governments after 1863 failed to adequately see and acknowledge that our slavery past continued to have negative effects and still does. For that, I offer the apologies of the Dutch government.”

Rutte offered his thoughts in a speech at the country’s National Archives, in response to the 2021 report, “Chains of the Past”, issued by the Dutch Slavery History Dialogue Group.

“For centuries, the Dutch state and its representatives facilitated, stimulated, preserved, and profited from slavery. For centuries, in the name of the Dutch State, human beings were made into commodities, exploited, and abused,” Rutte went on to say. 

He added that slavery must be condemned as a “crime against humanity,”  — a view very few would disagree with in our own time — even though it still persists in various forms, in practice, if not with de jure legal protection. Even now, it persists in the shadows in various Western nations, despite its officially illegal status.

Rutte acknowledged he had experienced a personal “change in thinking” about slavery and that he had been wrong to have thought the Netherlands’ role in perpetuating the practice was “a thing of the past.” 

In his remarks, Rutte added, “It is true that no one alive now is personally to blame for slavery. But it is also true that the Dutch State, in all its manifestations through history, bears responsibility for the terrible suffering inflicted on enslaved people and their descendants.” Now that is certainly not the kind of public statement one hears routinely from a nation’s leader.

‘Profited greatly’

Discussing this public apologia, CNN noted that the Netherlands had “profited greatly from the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries; one of the roles of the Dutch West India Company was to transport slaves from Africa to the Americas. The Dutch didn’t ban slavery in its territories until 1863, though it was illegal in the Netherlands. 

“Dutch traders are estimated to have shipped more than half a million enslaved Africans to the Americas, Reuters reports. Many went to Brazil and the Caribbean, while a considerable number of Asians were enslaved in the Dutch East Indies, which is modern Indonesia…” 

We should add to that sad litany that the first shipment of 20 enslaved persons from Africa brought to North American soil had been carried by a Dutch-flagged ship. In 1619, the ship’s captain sold his human captives to the English settlers in their new colony of Virginia.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Year 1619, the birth of America’s original sin (and the founding of the nation) 

That date has recently provided a name and core idea for the New York Times’ “1619 Project” discussing the legacies of slavery — an effort that has given rise to a growing public debate about the way American history is being presented in schools. 

And that, in turn, has merged with an increasingly acrimonious national debate over the ideological values of “critical race theory”, a stalking horse for other political agendas.

SA slavery largely ignored

Interestingly, in all the reporting of Rutte’s thoughts on slavery, virtually no media reports — internationally or in South Africa — noted South Africa’s strong historical connection to the fact of that trafficking of enslaved humans by the Dutch. 

Queried about it, a Dutch diplomat explained, “I think he started with the communities that are most represented in Dutch society and some of whom are still part of the Kingdom. Their numbers of enslaved are also greatest. Hundreds of thousands. I am sure they will turn to the east and south too, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, etc.”  

Rutte’s statement also seems to have elided around the truth of the ubiquitousness of slavery historically — beyond that perpetrated by his own nation in the past — as something once found throughout most of the world. That observation could lead one to the question of why more governments (whose nationals and institutions were similarly deeply implicated in the slave trade) have not offered apologias for their roles in condoning, supporting or promoting slavery. 

One answer to that may well be that such statements could conceivably open the gates to waves of claims for restitution and reparations on behalf of descendants of all those slaves — or even on behalf of those societies whose members, taken prisoner, had been unable to survive their arduous journeys into captivity. (Historians estimate that perhaps a third of all enslaved persons had died en route to their destinations.)

Meanwhile, British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is now coming under pressure for a personal demonstration of remorse (and presumably reparations) because his ancestors had become wealthy by owning a plantation on Barbados in the West Indies that had used enslaved labour — and was later compensated by the British government when slavery was abolished across the British empire.

Slavery across human history

Of course, slavery was not just something conjured up by the Dutch East and West Indies Companies — or by the other European nations engaged in this practice. As a socioeconomic fact, it stretches back across human history. 

There are all those biblical references to slavery, sagas of people taken captive and then forced into lives of slavery, and even the way destitute persons sometimes surrendered themselves into slavery because of unpayable debt. 

Greek and Roman classical literature is also replete with discussions and descriptions of slaves and slavery. This even includes the relatively rare individuals who had been slaves but who had then been able to transcend their circumstances in purchasing or gaining freedom because of esteemed service to those who had owned them, or via earnings from their labour elsewhere. 

Naturally, the images of slaves (often serving as gladiators) in the Classical world has become a staple of films and novels such as Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, and Spartacus, as well as the more recent cinematic epic, Gladiator. But there have been yet more recent examples of slavery, even after the movement towards its abolition in the 19th century. 

Consider the use of slave labour by Germany and Japan during World War 2 (forcing those labourers to build weapons in underground factories or to construct roads and railways through jungle terrain), or the incarcerated millions sentenced to the Soviet prison camps, or all those persons still being trafficked across borders and illegally forced into contemporary versions of slavery as sex workers or indentured labourers in barely reimbursed, unending factory toil.

Back to the Netherlands

But let us circle back to the context of Prime Minister Rutte’s statement. 

Forty years ago, this writer visited an exhibition of paintings and artefacts from the rise of the Dutch commercial empire in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the paintings showed the family of a Dutch merchant stationed on the small Japanese island of Deshima located in the harbour of the city of Nagasaki. Japan’s ruling shogunate had sealed off all foreign access to Japan from the beginning of the 17th century for hundreds of years, save for one trading station on that island, operated by the Dutch East Indies Company (the VOC). The trading station soon became a commercially valuable spot to source such things as porcelain and silk. 

In the picture, standing behind the family seated formally on their chairs, in the shadows of the composition, there was the family’s “servant,” a dark-skinned woman with a distinctly Southeast Asian cast to her skin and facial features. That would not have been unusual. Many VOC officials had profitable postings in the VOC’s holdings in territories that were part of the company’s rapidly expanding rule throughout the islands of what became the Dutch East Indies, prior to their assignment to Deshima. And those officials would almost certainly have had indentured individuals or slaves as part of their households.

Over time, that “Dutch seaborne empire” increasingly included trading stations and territories on islands all across the Indonesian archipelago, as well as on the islands of Formosa and Sri Lanka, trading forts in India, control over northeastern Brazil with its prosperous sugar cane plantations, various islands in the Caribbean Sea, the territory of Surinam in South America, the small settlement of what became New York City, and, of course, that refreshment station of Cape Town, as well as forts in West Africa. Those forts were for the purpose of acquiring human captives from surrounding territories, via trade for such things as iron tools, cloth (Javatex, as it came to be called since it imitated Javanese batik), copper wire, and, of course, alcoholic spirits like gin.

But beyond the Dutch presence in West Africa, there were other European slave trading forts along the African coast operated by the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Brandeburgers and Danes, all designed for the purpose of obtaining captives and sending them on to colonial territories — enforced, involuntary, and lifetime labour crucial for the success of plantations and in mines.  Stowage of a British slave ship, Brookes (1788). (Image: Wikipedia)

There was an unrelenting demand for such labour — ultimately numbered in the millions over several centuries — because enslaved persons had the habit of dying from the brutal treatment they received, from illness and poor nutrition, from punishment inflicted on them for rebellions, or simply from their succumbing to despair over their baleful and unfathomable circumstances.

Meanwhile, over centuries, a growing share of the indigenous populations of the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, most especially on the densely populated island of Java, endured what became a quasi-slavery-style existence without being removed from their homeland. 

They were compelled to raise valuable crops such as rice, pepper, and sugarcane for forced delivery to the Dutch at undervalued prices. Moreover, they were also required to provide unpaid corvée labour to build or repair roads, canals, harbours, and other infrastructure. This treatment was not quite slavery, but the difference was often more semantic than real.

Rutte’s confession about the iniquities of slavery might just as easily have been issued in the name of the successor rulers of Spain, Portugal, France, Denmark, England, the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary states along the North African littoral from Morocco to Egypt, Brandenburg, the still more complex case of the Belgian king’s personal control of the Congo River basin, and the governments of the southern half of the United States. 

But there is also the legacy of the Omani sultanates strung out all along the East African coast (more on that later). There is also the less often discussed role of African kingdoms which were, themselves, complicit in this trafficking of humanity, as they obtained captives via warfare or through something approaching a trade in human flesh and then sold their captives to the conveyers of those enslaved persons on to their dismal fates elsewhere.

The Cape

To this litany we must now add the enslavement by the Dutch of people from as far afield as Angola, Mozambique, Bengal, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and all across Southeast Asia who were then brought to the Cape and who, over time, together with the surviving original inhabitants of the region — the Khoi-san — gradually became the people now usually referred to as the Coloured people. (That term is now an increasingly contested one, with the word “Camissa” offered in its place. Camissa is the creolised form of ǁkhamis sa, meaning “place of sweet waters,” the Khoi people’s name for Cape Town in Kora, one of the languages of the Cape.) These individuals and their descendants were held in bondage until the end of slavery at the Cape in 1834. 

The Byzantines, Ottomans and Russians

Moreover, while some European nations were not part of the African and Southeast Asian networks of capturing persons to enslave them, they nevertheless also had their own histories of human commerce. From early in the existence of those statelets that eventually coalesced into Russia by around the 11th century, the capture and transport of enslaved persons to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople or further to the East was a staple of their commerce.

This was in addition to the more usual traffic of furs, precious metals, timber, and amber. The successor to the Byzantines, the Ottomans, carried on this practice with other conquered peoples such as the Circassians of the Caucasus Mountains region, or from tribes beyond the formal reach of their sovereignty.

Once Moscovy/Russia became a more centralised political system by the 17th century, the legal position of peasant farmers was increasingly circumscribed into legal, lifetime serfdom in which labour was owed to nobility and landowners and where their status became hereditary. Eventually, this ran counter to a tendency across much of Europe in curtailing peasant serfdom, especially in areas controlled by the Napoleonic system by the beginning of the 19th century. Russian serfs were legally released from their hereditary status in 1863, but, for many, their real circumstances changed very little.  

The Americas

In the Americas, while many of the new republics abolished slavery following their independence from Spain, and even after Haiti’s successful slave revolt against the French in the beginning of the 19th century, the circumstances for the enslaved (or formerly enslaved) on the Caribbean islands that continued as colonial possessions remained bleak. 

In Brazil, moreover, where more captives had been transported to than any other place in the hemisphere, legal slavery was only abolished in 1888, over half a century after the country itself had become independent from Portugal. After emancipation, however, the circumstances of Brazil’s black inhabitants did not magically change for the better, as most black Brazilians continued to remain poor and landless.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the extension of slavery into new territories (and then the possibility of the institution being abolished entirely) became the proximate cause of the American Civil War that ran from 1861 to 1865. 

This past New Year’s Day marked the 160th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation.” This presidential decree said slavery in those states in revolt was now over, even though there was as yet little ability to enforce this until the territory of the Confederate states came under the control of federal troops. It was not until the passage of the 13th amendment to the constitution that slavery as a whole was abolished in national law. 

As President Joe Biden said the other day in his commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s announcement, “The Emancipation Proclamation became an inspiration to thousands of Americans who celebrated all across the Nation that New Year’s Day long into the night. Afterwards, every Union victory became a greater sign that justice could conquer injustice, that freedom would triumph over bondage, and that the battle cry of our Nation was freedom and justice for all.”

Of course, the struggle for actual equality remains incompletely achieved, and there remain shadowy areas where conditions are not much different from indentured servitude. These include individuals trafficked into illegal working conditions from outside the country, or even legally incarcerated persons who, at least in Louisiana, are dispatched on work parties where the prisoners receive no compensation for their labours. 

Restitution

This brief, bleak survey of the history of enslavement leads us on to the question of how or what kind of restitution is now possible, given there are no individuals alive now who were specifically and individually victims of state-sanctioned formal slavery. 

But wait a minute: there is this astonishing story. A half-decade ago, the very prestigious (and very exclusive and expensive) Georgetown University came face-to-face with the deeply uncomfortable realisation that their institution had been complicit in selling over 200 enslaved persons from the school’s farm in Eastern Maryland on to the far more brutal sugarcane plantation landscape of Louisiana. The funds thus raised had staved off the school’s imminent bankruptcy. 

Confronted with this deep moral dilemma about the school’s history, and in the face of genealogists who had been tracking down the descendants of those slaves, the school’s management has been wrestling with how to make restitution to the actual, identified descendants of those former slaves and the university’s behaviour.

Now there are efforts on the part of at least one US state to move towards a form of reparations to individuals who can show direct descent from previously enslaved persons.

As the New York Times reported late last year, “In the two years since nationwide social justice protests followed the murder of George Floyd, California has undertaken the nation’s most sweeping effort yet to explore some concrete restitution to Black citizens to address the enduring economic effects of slavery and racism.

“A nine-member Reparations Task Force has spent months travelling across California to learn about the generational effects of racist policies and actions. The group, formed by legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, is scheduled to release a report to lawmakers in Sacramento next year [2023] outlining recommendations for state-level reparations.”

The report went on to say, “While the creation of the task force is a bold first step, much remains unclear about whether lawmakers will ultimately throw their political weight behind reparations proposals that will require vast financial resources from the state.”

Whether or not any such a plan ultimately is adopted by California — or by any other states — the question remains of how far such a movement for restitution or reparations could extend to the larger African diaspora, or others taken into involuntary servitude elsewhere (as in the case of South Africans, the descendants of the entire population of slaves officially manumitted in 1834). 

How would such a broad international movement be managed? Who would pay for it from among all the nations involved in the slave trade, and who would qualify? And what should or can be done about any complicity of African states which had sold captives to those who had transported slaves to their destinations from West and East Africa, even as some of their own populations were being similarly treated?

Mozambique, 1910

I want to offer one final personal observation. A dozen years ago, I was contracted by an international humanitarian relief agency to go to the far northern part of Mozambique to document the devastating impact of a series of massive tropical storms. I travelled overland from the regional capital of Nampula to the small city of Angoche, located on the Mozambique coast.

Beyond the storm damage, the town had also suffered from the depredations of a long-running civil war. Once there, however, I discovered Angoche had also been a slave entrepôt — run by a branch of the Omani trading families that had, until the late 19th century, ruled Zanzibar. 

A shocker was that it had been the Portuguese colonial army that attacked and conquered Angoche from its Arab rulers in order to end that traffic in humans — in 1910. Presumably the last fighting to end the international slave trade based in Africa. 

Portugal, of course, was the same nation that had forcibly transported hundreds of thousands of people on to their agonies in Brazil or to plantations on some of the islands in the Atlantic. They, the Portuguese, certainly had not participated in those naval patrols by Britain and the US that had acted against the slave trade, along the West African coast in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s.

Ending slavery in all its manifold forms was (and remains) a moral imperative, just as the vociferous anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce, had asserted to the British parliament over 200 years ago, saying of his conviction, “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.”

Nonetheless, dealing with slavery’s aftereffects and the generational impacts on the African diaspora — and the places their ancestors had been forcibly wrenched from — remains contested space. Even now. DM

[chloefashionthroughtime]

Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement was a battle for social justice that mostly occurred in the 1950s and 1960s in order for Black Americans to acquire equal legal rights in the United States. Although the Civil War legally ended slavery, it did not stop discrimination against Black people, who continued to suffer the terrible impacts of racism, particularly in the South. By the mid-twentieth century, Black Americans had had enough of bigotry and violence directed against them. They, together with many white Americans, organised and launched a historic two-decade campaign for equality. On February 1, 1960, four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, took a stance against segregation by refusing to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter without being served. Hundreds of people joined their cause in what became known as the Greensboro sit-ins over the next few days. After some students were detained and charged with trespassing, demonstrators called for a boycott of all segregated lunch counters until the proprietors relented and the initial four students were ultimately served at the Woolworth's lunch counter where they'd first stood their ground. Their activities helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which encouraged other students to get part in the civil rights struggle through nonviolent sit-ins and protests in dozens of cities. It also piqued the interest of Stokely Carmichael, a young college graduate who joined the SNCC during the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register Black voters in Mississippi. In 1966, Carmichael was elected chair of the SNCC and delivered his famous speech in which he coined the phrase "Black power."

On May 4, 1961, 13 "Freedom Riders"—seven Black and six white activists—boarded a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C., for a bus tour through the American south to protest segregated bus terminals. They were putting to the test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling in Boynton v. Virginia, which deemed interstate transportation facility segregation illegal. The Freedom Rides garnered international attention as they faced violence from both police officers and white protestors. On Mother's Day 1961, the bus arrived in Anniston, Alabama, where a mob boarded it and detonated a bomb. The Freedom Riders were savagely assaulted after escaping the burning bus. Photos of the bus engulfed in flames went viral, and the gang was unable to locate a bus driver to carry them any farther. The Freedom Riders continued their journey under police protection on May 20 after US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (brother to President John F. Kennedy) worked with Alabama Governor John Patterson to secure a suitable driver. However, the cops abandoned the passengers until they arrived in Montgomery, where a white mob viciously assaulted the bus. Attorney General John F. Kennedy sent federal marshals to Montgomery in response to the riders and a summons from Martin Luther King Jr. A group of Freedom Riders arrived in Jackson, Mississippi on May 24, 1961. Despite the backing of hundreds of people, the group was arrested for trespassing in a "whites-only" institution and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Attorneys for the NAACP took the case to the United States Supreme Court, which overturned the convictions. Hundreds of new Freedom Riders were drawn to the cause, and the rides continued. In the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals.

On August 28, 1963, one of the most renowned events of the civil rights movement occurred: the March on Washington. Civil rights activists such as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King Jr. planned and attended. More than 200,000 people of all colours gathered in Washington, D.C. for a peaceful march aimed at imposing civil rights legislation and creating workplace equality for everyone. The march's high point was King's address, in which he repeatedly proclaimed, "I have a dream…" The speech "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr. energised the national civil rights movement and became a rallying cry for equality and freedom.