Category: Slavery

The Turn of We the People: Freedom Seekers

10/13/2026

Faith in themselves

12/13

Germination steps Johnny.
Freedom does that.
The Underground Railroad was in Indiana.
A big part.
My area was active.
Valparaiso.
There was a big raid in Michigan when I was young.
The Kentucky Raid of 1847.
I was 16 that year.
The raid in Vandalia made national news Gus.
Vandalia is less than 100 miles from Valpo.
The raid was spoken of in Congress.
The Freedom Seekers won that day.
The Kentucky slavers didn't have the right paperwork.
So ruled a local judge.
Re-enslavement was what the Kentuckians wanted.
Expected their property rights Johnny.
In 1847, with shotguns and pitchforks, the people of Vandalia said no to tyranny.
And in 1864, with faith in themselves, Betsey and James said yes to freedom.
Indeed.

Representation usurpation

What would have happened if they had been caught Johnny?
Caught running?
What if, after leaving the mansion on January 8th, Betsey and James get caught seeking?
Hard to know Yank.
Separated for sure.
Common.
They were free according to Lincoln and federal law.
Just not free according to Jeff.
The war went on for 16 months Johnny.
Betsey and James knew the risk.
Knew the reward.
Also knew Richmond.
Betsey and James had connections.
People learn how to communicate Gus.
There's always an underground.
Always.
You knew the risks Reb.
So did you.
Not like you did.
True.
You knew of the representation usurpation.

Passageways and We the People

I, Johnny Reb, knew of the thirty Thousand.
I, Gus Kotka, didn't.
Neither did the people of Vandalia.
Nor Valpo.
We the People are 21st century freedom seekers.
Seeking freedom from the bondage of usurpation.
Slavery is usurpation.
Is usurpation slavery?
It ain't freedom Gus.
Usurpation is enslavement to an unlawful law.
Tyranny.
Just like slavery.
We the People need each other Yank.
More than ever Reb.
This passageway means that to me.
The thirty Thousand is our passageway.
A utility.
Built for time.
Like the truth.
A first order reality Johnny.
Makes a first order Republic.

*Next Up: 20 October and 13/13 The Turn of We the People.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Turn of We the People: Privy

10/6/2026

Someday stairs

11/13

We have stepped Johnny.
We have Gus.
These are those stairs.
Servant slave stairs.
Someday stairs.
Someday.
Not much room Reb.
The main stairs are double-wide.
Betsey and James.
Yeah.
The second floor rooms were not public.
True.
Betsey and James had a right to be up here.
They aided Varina and Jeff.
Varina trusted Betsey.
Betsey kept secrets.
Observant.
Mansion ran well.

Indoor outhouse

What's that small green door?
Privy Yank.
An indoor outhouse?
Of course.
Jeff had a private stool.
Imagine he shared it some.
Varina for sure.
Guests like Lee.
Cabinet members.
Probably.
The Chesnuts?
Sure.
Who cleaned it?
Not Jeff Gus.
There would have been chamber pots too.
Nature calls.
And the slave servants cleaned up.
Somebody's chore for sure.
And down these steps.
No doubt carefully.

Privy councils

King's have privy councils Reb.
Private advisors.
It sounds funny.
Kind of a campfire joke.
I was having a privy council.
Might mean making a number two.
Johnny, we have the same sense of campfire humor.
We probably would have got along.
Except for trying to kill each other.
We actually needed a We the People Congress.
Not a council.
And public, no secret debates.
Let us deliberate.
Very Elbridge of you Yank.
I thought of Madison.
Your brain has changed.
I have a brain?
You got something.
It's this place Johnny …

*Next Up: 13 October part 12/13 The Turn of We the People: Freedom Seekers.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Turn of We the People: Women

9/29/2026

Expectations

10/13

Women Reb.
Yes.
Our day ain't like today.
Expectations in both Gus.
Varina was expected to have babies.
It took several years.
Jeff worrying of course.
Mary Chesnut felt the pressure too.
You said she was anti-slavery and anti-Black.
Mary never had children.
Oh-oh.
Her father-in-law wrote his will against her for it.
Punished.
Wrote that if no male heirs were produced, his property would revert to a male descendant.
Mercy.
None given to Mary.
Men did that to women.
Women were mostly a rightless class.
Much like the enslaved.
Correct.

Underrepresented

Women today Johnny.
Right.
That's not much of an answer.
Right.
Maybe women today should speak for themselves.
Perhaps in a new house for We the People.
Represented according to numbers.
In a coalition of the constitutionally willing.
What is their number Reb?
Women are more than 50 percent Yank.
And how much representation in the usurpation do women have Johnny?
About 20 percent.
Whoa.
Women are the largest underrepresented group in America.
So they stand to gain with the thirty Thousand.
The most.
Exciting Reb.

Women are the key to America's greatness

Women are the key Gus.
The key to America’s greatness.
The turn of We the People is the turning of the key.
The key is representation.
The lock is Article 1.
Section 2.
Clause 3.
Of the US Constitution Reb.
Turn the great key America.
Open the door.
Become We the People.
Become who we are.
World leaders of republican representation.
Unlike any other in the world.
Unique even.
It is what makes us great Johnny.
It is America's foundation Gus.
It is America.
First order.

*Next Up: 6 October part 11/13 The Turn of We the People: Privy.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Turn of We the People: Think of (All) the Children

9/22/2026

700,000

9/13

Never seen a light like this Reb.
Special.
It has a tube attached.
Charlie said it was a gas.
Davis smoked.
Children running around too Yank.
Kind of a small Knights of the Round Table.
Jeff was a late nighter.
Quiet time.
Plan your destruction time Gus.
And yours Johnny.
War touches all.
How many of us died?
Something like 700,000.
In 48 months Johnny.
Nearly 15,000 a month.
All those sons.
Fathers.
Brothers.
Someone's child Gus.
Everyone had a momma.

Equal in light

Jeff sits here by the fire.
Varina asleep next door.
Their children sleeping in the other room.
Jeff sits here by the light.
While holding the keys of war Gus.
Hard to understand Jeff ignoring the Constitution.
Jeff was against the self-made man.
Lincoln.
Against the idea that a child is its own light.
Couldn't see Betsey and James as equal in light.
Thought Betsey and James inferior Yank.
Damn it Reb.
Jeff?
The whole damn slavery thing.
Slavery economics Gus.
Are economics of oppression.
Usurpers don't think of all the children.
This room tires.
Next.

Absence presence

The 700,000 are missing.
Absence has a presence.
Remember Kenny Reb?
Kennedy Grogan.
Buried in Berryville.
Killed on his 20th birthday.
Assaulting a house of Jesus.
Turned into a fort.
Amen Johnny.
What chance did Kenny have Gus?
Caught up in a world.
Set on fire by Jeff and his ilk.
A treasonous ilk.
One is to think of the children.
When one thinks of the thirty Thousand.
We the People includes all American children.
We can't leave them this anti-American usurpation.
We the People need to be adults about representation.
Think of the American legacy Reb.
And what we are leaving the children.

*Next Up: 29 September part 10/13 The Turn of We the People: Women.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Turn of We the People: Forward

9/1/2026

Double Time

6/13

Look at that clean Richmond street.
Never seen it cleaner Gus.
How'd Betsey and all keep house?
Good question.
All the traffic.
All the mud.
And other things Reb.
And other things.
Full-time job.
Clean at night I suspect.
All them stairs.
Rooms and windows.
Betsey and James would have looked out this window, so to speak Reb.
Yes.
Maybe even had forward thoughts.
Higher thoughts.
Like let's keep moving.
We got the bedroom next.
Double time it!
Forward Yank!

What The Heck?

Uh-oh.
There is a window.
Where Reb?
On the porch side.
What the heck?
Just move.
Moving.

Private Space

Here Gus.
That wasn't bad.
Just a big room.
Up words Reb.
I remember.
Betsey and James would have spent time in here.
James some, Betsey lots.
Because of Varina?
This was definitely a private space for Varina.
How so?
Recall the half cabin of the two-and-a-half cabins.
I do.
That would have been Jeff's office.
Why wasn't it Johnny?
People would have been walking through the bedroom.
To get to the half cabin.
Correct.
A problem, yes.
So the office is straight ahead.
Oh my.

*Next Up: 8 September part 7/13 The Turn of We the People: Jeff Had A Bad Day.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Turn of We the People: Up Words

8/18/2026

Stairs Up

4/13

We are taking the stairs up.
That's the tour Yank.
What's up here?
First floor was what most people saw.
Second floor private?
More than the first.
And the fourth floor?
Not tourable.
What was it back in our time?
Sleeping quarters Gus.
Betsey and James?
That is my guess.
Varina had a baby up there.
Did.
Who else Reb?
Staff like James Chesnut.
You said the Chesnuts had a place nearby.
They did for a while.
And then?

Got Worse Every Year

They went back to South Carolina.
What for Johnny?
Food shortages and inflation here in Richmond.
And in South Carolina more food at better prices.
Everyone was broke too.
That early?
Got worse every year.
Privation.
Also, Jeff needed James Chesnut in South Carolina for political reasons.
You said Chesnut was a deferer.
Good on a committee.
Okay.
He was part of a committee that ran South Carolina during the war.
So Jeff had a guy.
Definitely.
What'd the committee do Johnny?
Impressment of slaves for one.
Took slaves from slavers?
By force of law.
War labor.
The construction of coastal defenses.
Freed up Johnnies.
Made slavers mad.

Downer

Cuz?
Slavers didn't like losing hands.
Sorry.
And us Johnnies didn't like digging defenses.
You learned.
Necessity.
These stairs are quite the up.
There are two bedrooms and Jeff's office.
We can skip their bedroom.
What's up with that?
I imagine it will be too upscale for me.
Two and a half cabins.
We need Up Words Johnny.
Seeing an elegant bedroom would be a downer.
We know how we slept.
Under the stars quite often.
Stripes nor bars needed.
Up Words Yank.
And words of up.

*Next Up: 25 August part 5/13 The Turn of We the People: Not Yet Named.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Return of We the People: Sadness

6/30/2026

Fancy

12/13

These rooms Johnny?
Fancy.
This house was built rich.
This house was built to make the rich envious.
Sadness.
This house gives like that Gus.
It gives spirit.
Varina had a funeral vision here.
Betsey around?
Most likely, it was a special day.
What vision?
It started as Varina went out the front door.
Passing Comedy and Tragedy.
It was Jeff's inauguration.
In Richmond?
Capitol Square by the statue of George Washington on a horse.
When?
That would have been 22 February 1862, George's birthday.
Can we light a match?
Want some light?
Yes.

Visions

Here ya go Yank.
That door ahead leads to the foyer and Comedy and Tragedy.
And the one on the right to the first room.
So Varina and Betsey are going to Jeff's inauguration.
High noon.
The morning is spent in preparation.
As they go out the front they see four Black men there to accompany their brief carriage ride.
So?
Varina sees them dressed as pallbearers.
Why?
They wanted to dress-up and these were the best outfits they had.
Okay.
Varina and Betsey take the pallbearers and carriage to the inauguration.
Any problems?
The problem is Varina is in public, on the stage and needs to leave.
She leaves?
Gets up and walks out.
Unprecedented.
Varina had a vision Yank.
Of what?

Pyre

Jeff and a funeral pyre.
Jeff didn't die in the war.
I suppose it was our funeral pyre Gus.
Soldiers and civilians.
Worlds.
Varina saw what?
As Jeff took the oath Varina saw him as a willing victim going to a funeral pyre.
Then what?
After seeing the funeral pyre she got up and left.
Left while Jeff was taking the oath?
And took the carriage back to the mansion.
Likely with Betsey.
Her aide-de-camp.
Betsey would have seen all sides of Varina and Jeff.
Someone famous said a slave knows their master better than their master knows themselves.
The slave knows what the master tries to keep hidden.
Well said.
I’m imagining smoke and shadows of fire dancing on these blood red walls Johnny.
Maybe stop that.
Sadness is okay, on occasion.
Agreed Yank.

*Next up: 1 July (part 13/13) The Return of We the People: Righteousness.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Return of We the People: Betsey

6/8/2026

Parents

8/13

How do we know about Betsey Johnny?
Sort of how we know things about you.
Okay.
As far as we know, you are from Indiana.
So we can say Betsey is from Mississippi.
Born into slavery Gus.
Mom and dad.
Parents.
When was Betsey born, estimated?
Varina was born in 1826.
Betsey is probably younger than Varina Johnny.
Why?
Malleability.
Not much younger Yank.
Compatibility.
Varina was 18 when marrying Davis in 1845.
Okay Reb.
Estimate Betsey at, what, maybe 16 in 1845?
That would mean she self-emancipates in her mid-thirties.
Sounds fair.

Washington DC

A Crazy Baldhead Johnny.
One of the craziest.
No doubt.
The first years of the Davis marriage were not copacetic.
Say more.
Jeff was under his brother Joseph's thumb.
And Varina?
She saw that and let Jeff know.
Ouch.
And when Jeff went to Mexico for the war, he made his brother Joseph her guardian.
In case he died?
Right.
When did Varina and Betsey get to DC?
In 1849.
In time for President Taylor's death.
Davis was then a US Senator from Mississippi.
And they are in DC until 1861?
Only a few short trips to Mississippi … and a vacation to the White Mountains.
New Hampshire: Betsey?
No.
What was in New Hampshire?
A friend of Jeff’s from West Point.
Betsey?
A summer in DC.

Honor

Where?
On loan, working somewhere.
Not alone Johnny.
Not alone.
The Davises left DC in 1861.
Some of the last Southerners to leave.
Betsey with them?
Someone was helping Varina with a sick Jeff, three children and whatever baggage Yank.
They went to Mississippi?
By train, where Davis soon received news he was elected President of the rebellion.
Davis then to Alabama?
Montgomery, and likely James Dennison with him.
Someone Johnny.
Betsey and Varina soon follow.
Betsey witnessed all that?
Yes.
You always try to honor me Reb.
You do the same to me Gus.
Let's do the same with Betsey and James.
Jeff and Varina?
We’ll see.
Ready Yank?
To the door …

*Next up: 15 June (part 9/13) The Return of We the People: thirty Thousand.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Return of We the People: Betsey and Varina

6/1/2026

Riddles

Part 7/13

A goddess Johnny.
There are more.
This ain't the one?
There are two and two more.
Riddler.
House of riddles Gus.
Why we’re here.
I think so too.
We talked of Betsey and the men in her life.
Jeff and James.
What of Varina?
Loaded question Yank.
How did Varina and Betsey meet?
Mississippi.
Betsey running was their ending I imagine.
It was.
What does the record say about their beginning?
Betsey is just always there.
When did Varina and Jeff meet?
Married in 1845.

Taylors

Johnny, did Varina own slaves?
No.
Have money?
No.
Land?
No.
What then?
Intellect.
Jeff was married before … to a Taylor.
Sarah Taylor.
Daughter of the future President Zachary Taylor, right Johnny?
Who threatened to hang his former son-in-law for treason.
Hot potato!?
In the spring of 1850.
Taylor died that summer.
Some say Jeff did it.
Proven?
Not yet Gus.
Interesting.

Wonderment

Varina was at President Taylor’s deathbed.
Doing what?
Comforting her friend Margaret, the grieving First Lady, Jeff’s former mother-in-law.
Where’s Betsey Reb?
Someone was at Varina's beck and call?
Betsey.
Someone rode in the carriage with Varina?
Betsey, or whoever was in the servant slave role, acted as an aide-de-camp.
Jeff became US Secretary of War in 1853 Gus.
Varina was cabinet level.
So too Betsey.
And Varina had full access to DC.
From 1850 until ‘61 Yank.
And there stands Betsey.
Betsey was there when Varina had her first child.
Endearing.
Betsey was there when the same child died of sudden illness two years later.
Consoling.
Crying too.
Crying too.
Wonderment Yank.
That's a riddle, ain't it.
How would Betsey feel toward Varina?

*Next up: 8 June (part 8/13) The Return of We the People: Betsey.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

The Return of We the People: Betsey and James

5/18/2026

James Pemberton

Part 6/13

A bust.
For sure.
The owner of people.
How many Johnny?
Hundreds over the 30 years.
Davis owned James and Betsey?
Yes with a correction clarification.
Go.
Betsey self-emancipated with James Dennison.
Sign said James Pemberton.
Yet James Pemberton died in 1852.
Tough to run in 1864.
Right Yank.
Who was James Pemberton?
Jeff’s personal servant, slave, from 1829 until ‘52.
Twenty-three years.
Served Jeff’s father before that.

James Dennison

So James Dennison was Jeff’s servant slave after Pemberton died.
Now we enter new ground like your story Gus.
You said something was similar between me and Betsey and James.
Did.
What?
You all participated in events people wrote about.
So we can know me from the history of the 99th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
That and the war.
And for James and Betsey it was being a part of this place.
More part of the Davis household.
It is 1852 and James Dennison started … where are they at then?
Mississippi.
Then DC?
From 1853 until 1861 Gus.
DC from the eyes of James and Betsey.
Then Mississippi and Alabama and here in Virginia.
Same James Dennison?
Seems so.
Jeff was kind of stern.
Apparently James knew how to handle him.

Gospel

Betsey Johnny.
Varina's servant slave owned by Jeff.
Married to James?
Yes.
What did that mean, two enslaved in marriage?
Part of that humanness we talked about.
Say more Reb.
If in a long term relationship, that would possibly promote the interests of the owner.
Slave children.
Better behavior.
Less dissent.
More rights.
The Davis enslaved in Mississippi were freed by The Emancipation Proclamation, January 1863.
Correct Gus, and the Yankee army burned the Davis plantation in the same year.
So all their Mississippi friends and family were already free, by proclamation and war, by the time James and Betsey did the Someday walk.
Yes.
Feel like singing Johnny?
Do.
“I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel.”
“As ye deal with my contemners, so with You my Grace shall deal.”

Next up: 1 June (part 7/13) The Return of We the People: Betsey and Varina.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner