8

New Year's Day arrives. Among the whites—particularly among the French, English, and Dutch landowners—it is the day to settle debts.

And this particular New Year's Day, M. Lafontaine owes you a notable debt. In the taverns of New-Orleans, wagers are placed on card games every evening. Fortunes are won or lost, and too frequently blood is drawn when an individual's livelihood is at stake. You are able to direct the conversation in such a way that your opponents are always on edge. They are too busy responding to your witicisms, gossip, and ramblings that they fail to pay sufficient attention to their cards and the deck. You exploit this lack of attention mercilessly. This is how M. Lafontaine came to owe you such a debt. And this evening, he knocks on your door.

Answering it, you find him standing there, a young male slave in tow. "What is the meaning of this? Where are my pieces of eight?"

"This is Alpheus. I will return in a year to reclaim him." And so you grasp his intent: the services of the enslaved have a value in the market. It is customary to rent them out for a year at a time—or to loan them out as a way to repay a debt. M. Lafontaine has no money with which to repay you, but the labor of this man does.

Accept Alpheus as payment.

Demand coin instead, even if it is a discount on the debt.

Absolve M. Lafontaine of his debt.

Next