by Phil Walker
She was often seen walking through the Fort, watching the training, and was always on hand for the sporting events where she passed out the traveling trophies to each winning platoon. The men always bowed when they passed her, but spoke to her only when she spoke to them. In many ways, Arcadia became the symbol of the new America they were all training to achieve.
16
Mount Vernon, Virginia
In the summer of 1771, Arcadia determined that the time was right to begin turning Virginia into a non-slave state. Her first experiment with Jefferson at Monticello and with Washington at Mount Vernon had proved to be unqualified successes. Both Jefferson and Washington believed the plan was, not only sound philosophically, but a very practical method for reorganizing labor.
Washington organized a lavish party and invited nearly every large landowner in the colony. Since Washington was held in highest esteem by all of Virginia, everyone came early and stayed late. Since it was Washington’s party, he was expected to establish the agenda of events and topics. He crafted the discussion with care. In the morning, the men discussed the current state of affairs with England and what should be done about it. Washington suggested that it might be possible for the 13 colonies, acting in unison to establish an American nation. Since this was a popular belief among many of the wealthy landlords, it was fairly easy for Washington to move the conversation to the character of such a country, the concepts of government by the consent of governed, equality for all, the principle of every man being created equally, were all equally popular.
Then Washington, joined by Jefferson, revealed what they had done to both carry out the principle of equality among men and remain profitable at the same time. They told about their selling all their salves to a company called the Foundation, who emancipated them all, and then offered them jobs as employees at the plantations. They talked about their successes in educating their former slaves, how much money they were making with the new system, the Emporiums for the purchase of a wide variety of products and food, and how much more productive the workers were when they were free and had a solid future for their families.
The landowners were fascinated with the revolutionary new idea and were especially intrigued with the idea of making more money while shedding the veneer of guilt that came with the concept of slavery and treating people as property. They asked if it would be possible to speak to the head of this company, the Foundation and get further details.
Washington smiled, his new teeth glistening in the sun, “As a matter of fact, the President and the owner of The Foundation is present at the party. The reason you have not met this remarkable person, whose insight and intelligence I admire greatly, is because she is a woman.”
“A women, in a position of such authority?” said on the members of the numerous Lee families, “That seems rather unlikely.”
“Elizabeth ruled England for over 50 years and turned it into the greatest power on Earth. Nobody there thought it was strange or unlikely,” answered Washington.
“Would it be possible for us to meet this remarkable woman, “said Henry Lee?
“Absolutely,” said Washington. He sent one of the servants, to fetch Arcadia. Jefferson winked at Washington, knowing that the trap had closed and it was unlikely many would be able to escape Arcadia’s charm, and brilliant logic.
A few moments later, the servant returned with Arcadia on his arm. As she approached the group of men, they all stood. Many of them had seen Arcadia at the party, wondered who she was and secretly believed that this was, by far, the most beautiful woman at the Mount Vernon Mansion.
Arcadia glided up in her white gown, with her long blond hair and crystal blue eyes. Her smile sparkled through the group of grinning men. “I gather,” she said, “that Mr. Washington and Mr. Jefferson have been gloating to you about their fat purses and the relief of their consciences?”
That got a loud laugh from all the men. Someone set a chair for Arcadia and she began the process of altering the lives of all who lived in Virginia. She spoke for nearly an hour, answering questions and overcoming objections. When the debate was over, Arcadia had spent over $3 million, but had purchased the lives of 200,000 human beings.
The movement began to catch on in other southern states and Arcadia corresponded with many large slaveholders regarding the possibility of them doing what was done in Virginia. With a fine sense of timing, Arcadia had her agents, find a man named Eli Whitney, and found out he was only six years old. She decided that they couldn’t wait until he grew up and invented the cotton gin. She knew that the introduction of the cotton gin caused a huge increase in cotton production and the resulting importation of 600,000 more slaves from Africa. The work force could come from elsewhere, there were plenty of people in Mexico to fill the jobs, and the new technology would only help her in her providing labor from the Foundation. This new tool gave Arcadia a powerful weapon to use to convince southern slaveholders to switch to the better work system.
Between 1770 and 1775, Arcadia would emancipate nearly half the slaves in America. The alternative method of using labor in this fashion would ultimately take the heat out of the debate on slavery when the Second Continental Congress introduced the revised constitution in 1776.
Her Emporium empire blossomed with the increase in the number of stores. Arcadia had been right. Using the Wal-Mart concept of buying in large bulk, she reduced the costs in all the stores, sold her products to “employees” cheaper and still made money.
On this day, since all of the Colonial leaders had come to the party and because they had not been together for a while, Washington had them stay after the party and the next day they all gathered in the dining room at Mount Vernon.
“We have all been busy with our projects,” said Arcadia, “I know that some of you have a lot of news to tell, so let’s go around the table and get caught up.”
Franklin seemed the most eager, so he went first. “Using the example of the small steel mill at the Fort, and with Arcadia’s money, we are building a much bigger plant in Philadelphia. It will be powered by building a bigger generator that is driven by a bypass we dug off the river and run through pipes to dynamos. Using the plans of the steam locomotive we have, the plant is turning out the main parts of the machine. They’re shipping the parts to Philadelphia. It is now nearly complete. Within a year, we will have both our steel plant and the means to build a rail line out of Philadelphia toward New York and on to Boston. We have managed to do all this right under the British noses. They have no idea what we are doing.”
Jefferson spoke next, “Yesterday, Arcadia convinced all the slave holders in Virginia to use her plan for emancipating slaves. The system at both Monticello and here, have proven it’s a way of increasing profits and freeing slaves. I’m going to introduce a bill in the House of Burgesses to forbid any slave ships to enter any Virginia ports. That will reduce the importation of slaves considerably.
John Adams and James Madison reported they were working with the delegates they knew would be coming to the Second Continental Congress in 1775. “We have decided that the First Congress should go ahead without any interference since they do solve some problems regarding western territories and the establishment of new states. However, the Second Congress needs to pass the Declaration of Independence as well as pass the real constitution. We are lobbying these delegates to have a positive view of our plan,” finished Madison.
Hamilton was next. “I’ve read modern economic theory and banking practices, and with the use of Arcadia’s rather wonderful computers, I’ve been able to formulate budgets for the country over the next 50 years. I’m certain that the institution of the income tax was and is a mistake. A flat tax on all income regardless of the entity, be it individual or company with no exceptions is the most fair and profitable system.”
“Where do you intend to set the tax rate,” asked Arcadia?
“Well, we can get along very nicely for the foreseeable future at 10 percent, the same as a church tithe.
I estimate that this rate will produce surpluses every year.”
“And now, Mr. Washington,” smiled Arcadia.
“Arcadia is giving me entirely too much credit for the work at Fort Independence. However, we achieved a full complement of soldiers last year, which topped out at 3,879. Of those 337 are black, 146 are Native Americans and we have 63 women. After nearly a year of conditioning and education, we had 116 recruits quit, 37 of which were medicals and were reassigned to other duties. The rest are being held in our holding facility. They are reasonably happy. We treat them well, and even though they all say they would never tell anyone our secrets, they understand our hesitancy to take a chance.”
“We have 100% literacy in both reading and writing. Most of our recruits are at levels near the same as ours. They are now studying history, science, and government. I have to say they are the best soldiers I’ve ever seen, and they haven’t done one minute’s worth of training with weapons. They’ve done so well, we are planning to give them all a three-week furlough for the Christmas season at the end of their second year. We don’t see any problems with that. They’ve all been writing home with various cover stories about how they’ve been spending their time. I doubt we have a security problem. The men are paid so well, they have all been able to substantially help most of their families since they have nothing of importance to buy at the Fort.”
“Next year we are going to begin concentrating even more on martial arts training. This is basic hand-to-hand fighting, but it’s nothing like you have ever seen before. The human being is a lethal weapon simply by existing.”
Arcadia rose to her feet. “Gentlemen, we have just four years to go before the Revolution begins. It is important that we let matters take their course as much as possible. The support of the people is critical to our success, and we won’t have that until England starts to truly abuse the colonies. As difficult as it will be, both in hardships, and loss of life, we cannot release the Rangers until after July 4, 1776.”
After that, a lot is going to change. I hope you caught the numbers that make up our Brigade. We have successfully integrated the force. Our blacks and Indians are treated no differently than anyone else. We want the entire country to be like that. We are already using our Indian soldiers to begin the process of successfully and peacefully integrating all the Native American population into our nation. We have already done a tremendous amount of damage to the tribes who lived along the east coast. We must not repeat that mistake as we move west.”
“In a year or so we will start breaking the Brigade into its special units. One of those units will work its way west, north, and south. We need active agents in Canada and especially Mexico. They hate the Spanish, but we need some cohesion in the coup to throw them out and have the Mexican population want to join the United States. The same is true for Central America all the way to the Isthmus of Panama. We have some of our students learning Spanish and French.”
17
Fort Independence, Virginia
Robby Pierce was in a reflective mood. He closed his laptop and looked over at his roommate Willis Grant.
“Willis, how long have we been here?”
“Sometimes it seems like I’ve never lived anywhere else.”
“Exactly,” said Robby. “We came to Fort Independence in November of 1770, that was two years ago. Does it seem like two years to you?”
Willis put down the book he was reading and stared away for a moment, thinking about it. “Come to think of it, I didn’t realize it had been that long. We haven’t really been given much time to think about it. It’s been a mad rush to finish the work every day”
“Sure, we’ve been busy, but that’s not it. The cadre of permanent party here has transformed us into something entirely different. We aren’t the same people who came here. We were just country boys who had no real idea of the world outside, I thought I was lucky to be able to read and write. You were barely literate. Now look at you, what book are you reading?
“Robinson Crusoe” said Willis.
“And what book before that?”
“I don’t know, Paradise Lost, or one of the Shakespeare plays.”
“What’s the square root of 49?”
“It’s 7, are you giving me a quiz?
“Not at all,” said Robby, “but doesn’t it seem amazing to you that you can do these things.”
“I guess it does. We sure do know more about just about everything, especially politics. I was reading one of Thomas Jefferson’s papers the other day and he makes a powerful argument for why the colonies should band together and form a new country. Before, I was just resentful of the British for the arrogant ways they treated us, now I know why they do what they do, and that it’s going to cost them everything they own in North America, the same is true for the French and the Spanish.”
“And yet, even though we’ve seen some amazing technology, they still haven’t shown us a single modern weapon.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Willis, “I think of myself as a weapon. The advanced martial arts, Judo, Karate, and the rest of it, we’ve been taught this last year has made me feel like I could defeat any man, armed or not.”
“You are better at it than most,” said Robby, “Certainly better than me, but you still have never been able to take down the Black Ninja.”
“Nobody has,” that guy comes up with moves that are beyond belief.”
“But then he helps you up and shows you what he did.”
“That’s the way I get better.”
“You remember when we were tested and had to run a mile? I was giving it everything I had to make it in less than 7 minutes.”
“Since you are smaller than me,” said Willis, you could always run faster. What was your time on the ten mile run the other day?
“Just under 55 minutes.”
“See, I haven’t been able to break the 60 minute barrier.”
“And yet we both weigh a lot more than we did when we came here.”
“Well, what’s the point of all this,” asked Willis?
“We are better men, than we could ever have been in Concord, It’s like Arcadia tells us, God has transformed our bodies, and our minds. I trust and honor every person at the Fort. My heart is filled with love for God, you, and all our comrades, and I believe our surrender to His will has made us what we are.”
“I would accept that as axiomatic truth.”
“See, two years ago you didn’t have a particle of an idea of what an axiom is.”
“All I know is that it’s going to take another four years to complete our training and turn us into the super army they say we’re going to be. I can’t imagine what that’s going to mean, but I’ll say one thing. Even though we have a wonderful life here, I would still like to go home for just a little while.”
“We both write all the time. Your father says your training must be pretty good, because your letters are getting so much better and interesting.”
“I don’t like not being able to tell them what we’re really training for here.”
“None of us do, but all of us recognize the need for secrecy. Also, we are making life a lot better for our families because of all the money we send home.”
“Amazing isn’t it, we just write a draft for our pay and send it home and our folks make the trip to Boston once a month to pick up the money in real silver.”
The conversation the men had that night seemed like someone was reading their mind the following morning, when the announcement came over the speaker that there would be a general assembly of the Brigade in the theatre after breakfast. All the 3600 men and women crowded into the big assembly hall that was normally used for church every week.
General Washington walked out onto the stage, and the entire brigade immediately came to attention. “At ease, men,” said Washington, “Please take your seats.”
“For almost all of you, you have been training here at Fort Independence for two years. I want you to know that my staff and I a
re very proud of the progress you have made. We have made scholars of you all. You now have the equivalent of a college education. This was necessary because of the rather advanced training that will commence at the beginning of next year. At that time, we are going to break up the training platoons and start assigning you to the jobs you will have when the brigade takes the field in about 42 months. We will begin the year by supplying each of you with your personal weapons. After you have become thoroughly proficient with these, we intend to begin training you with some of the more complicated equipment, such as the artillery pieces, and the big motorized vehicles locked up in storage for the past two years. During the next year, many of you will be leaving Fort Independence for advanced field exercises and other missions we will explain when the time comes. A few of you will also learn to fly the helicopters you already have seen. There are a number of other specialized jobs we will assign, based on your skill levels in the training you have already had.”
“As of now you are already the best educated, most physically fit army in the world. When we add the new equipment and skills, you will be invincible.”
Because of the many hours of hard work and dedication all of you have shown, we believe you deserve a break. Beginning the first week in December and continuing through the New Year, all of you will be given a furlough, so that you can go home and see your families.”
There was a stunned silence in the hall for a few seconds and then a huge outburst of cheering and applause. Washington let the men enjoy the moment and then held up his hands again for attention.
“I don’t need to tell you our mission to remove all European powers from North America remains the greatest secret in history. You have all established cover stories concealing your activities over the past two years. Make sure you stick to them and don’t take the chance of exposing your families to danger by telling them information that could be used by the enemy.
