[The capitalist, or industrial oligarch, Roger Vanderwater, mentioned in the narrative, has been identified as the ninth in the line of the Vanderwaters that controlled for hundreds of years the cotton factories of the South.This Roger Vanderwater flourished in the last decades of the twenty-sixth century after Christ, which was the fifth century of the terrible industrial oligarchy that was reared upon the ruins of the early Republic.
From internal evidences we are convinced that the narrative which follows was not reduced to writing till the twenty-ninth century.Not only was it unlawful to write or print such matter during that period, but the working-class was so illiterate that only in rare instances were its members able to read and write.This was the dark reign of the overman, in whose speech the great mass of the people were characterized as the "herd animals." All literacy was frowned upon and stamped out.From the statute-books of the times may be instanced that black law that made it a capital offence for any man, no matter of what class, to teach even the alphabet to a member of the working-class.Such stringent limitation of education to the ruling class was necessary if that class was to continue to rule.
One result of the foregoing was the development of the professional story-tellers.These story-tellers were paid by the oligarchy, and the tales they told were legendary, mythical, romantic, and harmless.But the spirit of freedom never quite died out, and agitators, under the guise of story-tellers, preached revolt to the slave class.That the following tale was banned by the oligarchs we have proof from the records of the criminal police court of Ashbury, wherein, on January 27, 2734, one John Tourney, found guilty of telling the tale in a boozing-ken of labourers, was sentenced to five years' penal servitude in the borax mines of the Arizona Desert.--EDITOR'S NOTE.]
Listen, my brothers, and I will tell you a tale of an arm.It was the arm of Tom Dixon, and Tom Dixon was a weaver of the first class in a factory of that hell-hound and master, Roger Vanderwater.This factory was called "Hell's Bottom"...by the slaves who toiled in it, and I guess they ought to know; and it was situated in Kingsbury, at the other end of the town from Vanderwater's summer palace.You do not know where Kingsbury is?
There are many things, my brothers, that you do not know, and it is sad.
It is because you do not know that you are slaves.When I have told you this tale, I should like to form a class among you for the learning of written and printed speech.Our masters read and write and possess many books, and it is because of that that they are our masters, and live in palaces, and do not work.When the toilers learn to read and write--all of them--they will grow strong; then they will use their strength to break their bonds, and there will be no more masters and no more slaves.
Kingsbury, my brothers, is in the old State of Alabama.For three hundred years the Vanderwaters have owned Kingsbury and its slave pens and factories, and slave pens and factories in many other places and States.
You have heard of the Vanderwaters--who has not?--but let me tell you things you do not know about them.The first Vanderwater was a slave, even as you and I.Have you got that? He was a slave, and that was over three hundred years ago.His father was a machinist in the slave pen of Alexander Burrell, and his mother was a washerwoman in the same slave pen.
There is no doubt about this.I am telling you truth.It is history.It is printed, every word of it, in the history books of our masters, which you cannot read because your masters will not permit you to learn to read.
You can understand why they will not permit you to learn to read, when there are such things in the books.They know, and they are very wise.If you did read such things, you might be wanting in respect to your masters, which would be a dangerous thing...to your masters.But I know, for Ican read, and I am telling you what I have read with my own eyes in the history books of our masters.
The first Vanderwater's name was not Vanderwater; it was Vange--Bill Vange, the son of Yergis Vange, the machinist, and Laura Carnly, the washerwoman.
Young Bill Vange was strong.He might have remained with the slaves and led them to freedom; instead, however, he served the masters and was well rewarded.He began his service, when yet a small child, as a spy in his home slave pen.He is known to have informed on his own father for seditious utterance.This is fact.I have read it with my own eyes in the records.He was too good a slave for the slave pen.Alexander Burrell took him out, while yet a child, and he was taught to read and write.He was taught many things, and he was entered in the secret service of the Government.Of course, he no longer wore the slave dress, except for disguise at such times when he sought to penetrate the secrets and plots of the slaves.It was he, when but eighteen years of age, who brought that great hero and comrade, Ralph Jacobus, to trial and execution in the electric chair.Of course, you have all heard the sacred name of Ralph Jacobus, but it is news to you that he was brought to his death by the first Vanderwater, whose name was Vange.I know.I have read it in the books.There are many interesting things like that in the books.
And after Ralph Jacobus died his shameful death, Bill Vange's name began the many changes it was to undergo.He was known as "Sly Vange" far and wide.He rose high in the secret service, and he was rewarded in grand ways, but still he was not a member of the master class.The men were willing that he should become so; it was the women of the master class who refused to have Sly Vange one of them.Sly Vange gave good service to the masters.He had been a slave himself, and he knew the ways of the slaves.
