Past Master

By Jeff Carter

An SF story about slavery. Master Legion travels back in time to free slaves. Other slave owners are not as nice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeff Carter
• Release date: Apr 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370532278

Jeff Carter

I'm an HF ASD writer of speculative fiction. I also write songs, but you won't find them on Smashwords.

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Past Master

Jeff Carter

This story previously appeared in Infinite Loop, edited by Larry Constantine, copyright 1993 by Miller Freeman Inc. Used by permission of the author.

Smashwords Edition 2016 April

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Story

About the Author

Past Master

When I first heard of Mr. Legion I was owned by Master Ballington.  We heard that a man from up north had come to town and bought a plantation on the other side of the town.  Ben, who usually drove into town, said he'd seen the man, and that he talked funny.  We put that down to his being a Yankee.  Ben also said he'd heard some of the other slaves say Mr. Legion had been seen down by the market checking on the next slave sale.

This set off a buzz of speculation in our quarters.  If Mr. Legion was going to buy slaves, would any of us be sold to him?  If so, would families be broken up?  What kind of master would he be?  On this last question there were two schools of thought.  One held that a Northerner was accustomed to considering Negroes free men and would be a good master.  The other held that Yankees who came south to own slaves were especially likely to be vicious:  that those who traveled a long distance in order to own slaves made worse masters than those who had grown up accustomed to the idea.  The proponents of this view pointed out that most of the slave owners in the area had been raised to own slaves by their slave-owning fathers, and most were not bad masters.

Master Ballington was not a bad master, if one is going to be a slave, which is not an occupation I would recommend, for the hours are long, the work is hard, and the pay is very low indeed.  Master Ballington never beat a