"Look what they send us... a paltry few measly, weak men." "No more than boys, most of them." "What we need is strong hands to toil." "Plantation's nothing but dirt till it's worked." "Labour is where riches are made." " Captain, welcome to Jamestown." " Thank you." "We're eager for news from England." "A General Assembly of representatives from all of Virginia, for the purpose of passing laws." "Planters will be selected." "Each man will be named a Burgess of his parish to speak on behalf of the commonage." "Burgesses?" "Elected?" "Why give power away so cheaply?" "It's a Company wish, and a firm instruction." "Rankling does not suit you, sir." "Perhaps you might explain the benefits to us, Governor, of inviting men of the soil to put their grub hands on the governance." "Sir, Edwin Sands has convinced the Company the surest way to attract new investors is to assure them their stake will not be embezzled." "Accountability seems to be the word on everyone's lips." "An understandable and admirable sentiment, but what is to become of us if we are to answer to hedgeborn planters?" "Well, that, gentlemen, we shall discover." "Don't you go thinking you can leave on that ship, woman." "You're married now." "And that means you're wed." "We ain't married, you jolthead!" "You're so drunk from waking to sleep, and you don't know spit of what might happen or not." "So I only told you we were wed." "But we're married!" "Verity!" "Verity!" "We're married!" "Come on." "Perhaps if you were to lay yourself at the mercy of Lady Yeardley..." "Explain the nature of your predicament at the time." "She detests my every living step." "Who can blame her?" "I've mocked her piety." "I am expert at making enemies, and now she has the means to destroy me." "Mistress Castell." "You seemed to be in considerable distress at the wharf." "So much so that here you are, seeking solace from the good doctor." "How kind of you to notice, Secretary Farlow." "I do not doubt that you appreciate the gratification to be gained from the comfort of a man." "I am moments away from ruin." "It is all I can do to breathe." "Reverend Sir." "Your Worshipness." "Suppose... a woman were intent on getting on that ship." "And suppose that woman's husband said they were married, but the wife said... she weren't a wife." "Can they take their vows in haste if they ain't already wed?" "England!" "Yeah, that's me point, sir." "To prevent her from returning." "I'm going home!" "I am leaving this place." "I can breathe again." "Did you wed meself and me wife?" "You are no more married than I am, Rutter." "Are you married, Reverend?" "Silas?" "Is he to stay in our home?" "He's my brother." "Come on." "Henry, you have your own land now." "Why is that not enough?" "Once you've started, once your land is growing, it'll give you your life back." "Henry." "We've a harvest to bring in." "We need your strength." "Ain't that so, Pepper?" "Will you help us, Henry?" "He's turned that savage will of his against his own life." "For the sake of silver." "Ain't the silver that broke him, Silas." "It's the crushing humiliation before every soul in Jamestown." "It is right that you should take a care for your brother." "How can I sleep with him there, so close at hand?" "Do you believe that he might try to harm you again?" "It ain't that." "It's the memory of it." "Some... harvest you should have, Sharrow." "There's work to do yet, Master Massinger." "Considered what you're looking to profit?" "I daresay you'd know that better than I would." "Well, whatever you foresee, forget it." "Why is that so, sir?" "Well, I'll harvest 40 times what you bring in." "Best quality tobacco, and I intend to sell it at a price so low that no dealer will pay any price above what I ask, and make sure that you don't profit from one leaf." "I can afford to do that year after year till you're ruined." "I gave you a chance to deal." "But you decided to challenge me instead." "And now you're going to see what that truly costs." "I mean, if life here ain't to your liking, what'll happen when you go home?" "Prison!" "That's what!" "So what were they for?" "The tears." "All my life, I never really felt like I belonged." "But here... in this mad, kneedeep shitpile..." "I do." "I saw those women coming off of that ship and I knew I'll never leave this place." "Because it's my home." "That changes everything." "I have thoughts and desires now that I ain't never had before." "So you ain't going back?" "No." "Fetch us an ale, then." "Mercy, did you ever witness anyone die on the gallows?" "I have, ma'am." "It is a most fearful, frightful sight." "Do the condemned seem ready to meet their maker?" "Or do they plead for their lives to be spared?" "They scream for forgiveness, ma'am." "Screeches that sound like they escaped from hell itself." "Yes, well, that's description enough." "Some of them curse their own souls with such a loathing, it's like looking into Satan's eyes." "I stand before you to call together a General Assembly." "The main part of which will be made up of burgesses, men elected to make laws that we will live our lives by." "Two men from each particular plantation will form a house to pass laws." "Make no mistake about our purpose here." "It is to create a new world, one abundant with opportunity and harmony." "God has given us the means to seek heroic profit." "Let us do so as one... and invite good men to take up governance." "Since the men from the boroughs are in Jamestown for the arrival of the ship," "I will call the first General Assembly this very week." "We are the creators of the greatest political endeavour... a land where free men... together respect the rights and the conscience of all who can speak." "Thank you." "I trust with all my heart that the burgesses will serve our colony well." "But I will appoint a Council of State to oversee our business." "And I will of course reserve the power of veto for any... let us say... unseemly proposals." "Good news." "Mistress Sharrow..." "Er," "I wish to show you something." "Thank you, James." "What made you decide?" "I seen more women arriving." "I'm going to... buy myself a wife." "To come over on the next ship." "Is Henry staying with you now out at the plantation?" "He is." "If you ever want him to leave..." "I mean, if you and your husband need any assistance..." "James..." "What a man you are." "Might I take a drink with you, Master Rutter?" "Might I have another?" "Mercy, let us live brightly." "For we do not know how much life we have left." "Is there a better companion in this world than a true drinking cousin?" "Pour inside me several ales and I have the fleetest of feet." "Yes?" "Shall I show you, your ma'amship?" "I killed a man." "I took the life of a man because I loved him." "I loved him!" "And that's why I came here." " I put poison in his wine." " Hold on tight." " Come on." "Here we go." " I killed a man." "Mercy, help me!" "I poisoned him." "Rutter, not one word of who we have in here." "Come on, quickly." "Merrymaking all on your own, Rutter?" "No, Marshal." "There is a number of us." "Ladies and, er..." "There was..." "Perhaps you drinkdreamed your very own harem of handmaidens." "No, sir." "The ladies..." "What does it matter?" "Fetch us some ale." "Have a seat, Captain." "I watched that man die." "Ma'am, the Marshal is in the tavern." "You must be quiet!" "I have information that requires your discretion." "Master Massinger insists that land is worthless without labour." "I see where you're leading." "Sir, a good many men who were sent here intended to work on Company land were signed over to Massinger by Redwick and Farlow." "It's outright malversation." "Well done, Samuel." "I must consider how best to move against the secretary and the Marshal for their part in the thieving of Company property." "I presumed they would be charged?" "You must rest, dear Samuel." "You leave this to me." "Good night, Lady Yeardley." "When the letter is revealed, the entire town will gather together to watch me swing." "Lordy!" "Mercy!" "Mercy, you must go and fetch Alice Sharrow." "Do you hear me?" "Leave by the back door." "You must not let the Marshal see you, and you must speak to no one." "No one." "No one." "Ssh, ssh, ssh." "Ssh, ssh, ssh." "Before it becomes too dark." "Why are you abroad at this hour, girl?" "Have you been drinking?" "!" "Why are you so anxious we should find Jocelyn?" "I've twice made the rounds, sir." "No sign of her." "What is it we're seeking out, Secretary?" "Is the Recorder's wife here?" "Why would the likes of a fine lady be keeping company with a ratsmelling drinking man such as me?" "Farlow." "I have the most beneficial news from the ship's captain." "Have you seen anyone else here tonight, Marshal?" "Did you not hear me say I have the sweetest information?" "Ssh, ssh!" "Me wife." "She snores like a trodon cat." "Farlow!" "We must speak to Massinger." "Mercy." "What are you doing here?" "I can't remember." "Perhaps I come to see you." "Why would you come to visit me at such a time of night?" "Because you are the handsomest boy ever walked through a girl's dreams." "That's why." "And I want to kiss you the night long." "Will you kiss me, Pepper?" "According to the captain, there's 20andodd Angolan slaves on a Dutch manofwar a little way out at sea." "It seems the privateers stole the cargo from a Portuguese merchant slaver on its way to Veracruz." "They could be brought ashore in a matter of days." "What will it cost?" "Food and provisions for the privateers will buy them for you." "Well, there's no appetite for slaves in England, but we'll require Yeardley's agreement before we bring them to Jamestown." "Suppose once purchased, we arrange to land the cargo downriver..." "Point Comfort?" "And only then do we take up the matter with the Governor." "Slaves." "We no longer have to rely on whatever lumps England cares to send us." "These sweats will be mine till they die." "Progress, gentlemen." "Progress." "Silas, the Assembly the Governor spoke about, it's to pass laws?" "That's what he said." "The other men who were granted land, do you know them well?" "What is it?" "If you were to tell the other planters about what Massinger's doing to you, pricing his own tobacco so low..." "What is in that mind of yours, Alice?" "Well, if you were to band together, all of you, and vote to make the price of tobacco fixed for every plantation," "Massinger can't use his position to crush us." "Shivers!" "Now I do remember." "Mistress Sharrow, you are to come quickly!" "The tavernkeeper's wife needs your aid!" "Why would you want 50 pounds of chains, Marshal?" "Why would you want to ask me such a question?" "Do you wish for heavymade chains, might fasten a ship?" "Or chains might fasten a man?" "Chains such as this will serve me well." "A man, then." "You might only come to me, sir, if you needed such chains in haste." "I've noticed over the years, Read, that you hold honour closer than life itself." "You locked horns with the Governor on a matter of principle, so you, Read, are the last man that I would tell the purpose of the chains." "Now, there's a ship on the wharf." "Would you have the Secretary send you back to England?" "Lady Yeardley has the letter." "I saw it in her hands." "She spent half the night telling me that she killed a man." "Verity, will you trust me to know that we must abide by Mistress Castell?" "Sure." "What do I have to lose?" "Except perhaps me neck." "I came here to escape my past." "It seems my past will not let me go." "Give me your hand." "I will say your own words back to you." "The ones you spoke to me on our first day here." "Knowing that this forbidding place will be our lives now." "We are sisters... of a sort." "I'll speak to Lady Yeardley." "I know that woman has good Christian compassion in her breast." "Let me try to reach it." "You must go home to your husband." "How can I?" "What will I tell him I've been doing all the night long?" "You let me take you back to him." "I know just the words will shut up any man's questioning." "I know, ma'am, that you're written to your cousin." "What business is this of yours, dear Alice?" "And that she sent you a letter in reply." "Mistress Castell confided in you, then?" "Ma'am, I sit in the Governor's chair, in the Governor's house, before the Governor's wife." "I could not do such a thing were I not moved by such good reasons to make a plea for clemency." " Your efforts are purposeless, Alice." " Please... let me speak what I know before you decide that." "It is true." "Mistress Castell killed a man with poison." "That villain ruined her reputation... inviting his friends to witness him seduce her so that her womanhood was trodden into the dirt." "He made a mockery of the things that any woman cherishes above all else... love, and trust and... hope and chastity." "Ma'am, I know how it feels to be cut so adrift from justice that a burning need for vengeance overtakes all else." "If you condemn Mistress Castell, ma'am... then you condemn me." "My cousin, Alice, wrote to tell me that the most she knows about Jocelyn Woodbryg is that her heart was broken by a rogue." "That is all?" "That is all." "What have I done?" "Jocelyn, what has become of you?" "Your wife was feeling most faint, sir." "So I gave her a place to sleep for the night." "Why didn't you fetch me to her?" "I sent a message with my husband." "Did he not tell you?" "What is it, Jocelyn, that ails you?" "Perhaps you might like to take a seat, gentlemen, and I'll fetch you some ale." "After all, both of those things are required when there's news of a babe to come." "Jocelyn!" "Jocelyn!" "Why so many chains, James Read?" "It's orders for the Marshal, sir." "What does he propose to do with them?" "He ain't the kind of man who speaks his business freely, but I did see him keeping company with the ship's captain." "Our conscience might rest easy, sir." "It's well known that any pagan heathens brung here will surely be saved by conversion to the Christian faith." "God will not be mocked, Read." "You mind your tongue." "Has Marshal Redwick ordered any shackles?" "No, sir." "No shackles." "Not yet." "Then it is possible you are mistaken." "There are no slaves." "I will speak to the captain, learn the matter of it." "Can you tell her, please, that my meeting with Lady Yeardley did not go as well as I'd hoped." "Tell her to come and see me if she can, that I might explain to her..." "Thank you, Mercy." "I take it, Jocelyn, that there is no childtobe?" "Would you be so kind...?" "Would you give me something... so that I can not ever have to face what is out there?" "And if I do it quickly... then Samuel might be spared the pain and ruin of seeing his wife denounced as a murderer." "Jocelyn." "You paint such tempting pictures." "But I have learned to resist all of your entreaties." "I was wondering when we might tell our neighbours the good news." "Perhaps not yet." "I am your doctor, Jocelyn." "I will be by your side both night and day." "Should you need me." "Planters cannot see any benefit in fixing a price for our crops." "They each want to get the best that they can." "Did you tell them that once he's destroyed us," "Massinger will come after them?" "They believe that because they're further upriver, he's no threat to them." "When we sat on the wharf on that warm morning and you told me of the wife and child you had who died..." "Meredith." "My Meredith." "I saw such a humbling in your face that day." "And I loved you for it." "I have loved you for it every day since." "Look at me." "Look at me in the eye so that you see it!" "I had a child taken out of my belly once." "I was 14." "We could have a babe." "Do you see?" "Woman." "You know how to love a man." "Master Massinger's labourers." "You provided him with men intended for Company land." "Now, I do hope we're not going to haggle over evidence." "I have no armed men outside." "May I ask you, sir... what do you want from us?" "Massinger's bought himself some slaves." " How many?" " 20andodd." "And why was I not offered any of them?" "We had expected, sir, that it might not suit your taste." "Jesus never spoke against one man owning another." "Abraham took slaves." "We have fields to plant and harvest." " I want half of them." " Governor." "Is it safe to speak of such business before your wife?" "I quite forget that she is there." "She is a woman." "She is not there." "I will preserve these in safekeeping." "I own you now." "Gentlemen." "I've been waiting for you." "I know more than you realise." "You know enough, and that's what matters now." "I live in fear of God." "I live in fear of many things." "Mostly I live in fear of men." "I am afraid of what they will make of this world." "I've given my life to men just as you have." "But I have not had to suffer as you did." "Will you forgive me, Jocelyn?" "It will soon be harvest." "And there will be dancing." "And I would dearly like to see you dancing, Mistress Castell." "Henry." "Henry, I know you can hear me." "You've made strong men of your brothers." "You were like a father to them." "Massinger is determined to ruin us." "Silas must win the support of the other planters, but if you stand beside him, the others will do the same." "You've been speaking to other planters." "'Your brothers are working to bring the harvest 'that might be worth nothing to them." "'They need you!" "'" "Henry, I'm going to have a child." "We... are a family." "I will dig out your brains and lay them on my hand so that I might spit upon them, you dog!" "If you harm my brother... it'll be the last breath you take." "Do you understand that," "Master Massinger?" "If you come onto our land again..." "I will tear your eyes out of your head." "Well... never let it be said that I killed an unarmed man?" "You have served your Governor, the Company and the colony well." "How do we intend to depose them?" "Their own greed for gain has already been turned against them." "These men now know that the noose awaits them should they fail to serve the best interests of governance here." "Your discoveries did that." "Sir, will they not be charged?" "If the Company appoints a new Marshal and Secretary, how do we know that their morals will be any better?" "These two know that they have been pocketed." "What could be better?" "I believed your intention was to expose their wrongdoing." "And we have, dear fellow." "But politics, Samuel, is not a blunt instrument." "Wafercake, why so glum?" "Do I not have such cause for joy when we are to have a child?" "That..." "That was a mistake." "Honeytongue, there is to be an Assembly." "Is that not the most wonderful opportunity for you to find advancement?" "A mistake?" "There's so much to do," "I doubt we will find the hours in the day." "I, Silas Sharrow, do swear to bear faith and true allegiance to His Majesty." "Every one of you owes a debt of loyalty to us Sharrows." "Which man here can deny it?" "Now, when you were tenured by Massinger, who was it who showed you how to work the land, kept his whip from your back?" "Who was it at times did your work for you?" "And will defend to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies..." "Now, will you stand with us... or let your cowardice stain your own reputation?" "My proposal to the assembly is to fix the price of tobacco." "Then no planter could drive up or down the profit that a neighbour might make." "How much do you propose to charge, Silas?" "Three shillings a pound for the best leaf tobacco and 18 pennies for the lesser crop." "It's a fair amount." "No!" "Now, you listen to me." "No man alive will tell me what my crop is worth." "It wouldn't be a man telling you." "It would be the collective of us all." "Ain't that the purpose of this house... to serve the whole colony, and not just the benefit of one man?" "Perhaps we should take a vote on it, since that is why we're all here." "All those in favour of the proposal made by the Sharrow brothers, say "ay"." "Ay!" "Sir, is this not a case for the council to veto a reckless provision?" "If you do that, Governor, who in here or out there will believe that this house has any influence, or is an instrument of justice?" "There will be no retraction on what has been voted upon." "The law stands." "The price of tobacco is fixed." "Come on!" "Henry." "That's it." "Your own land, Henry." "We might be neighbours." "I've paid my debt to you, Henry." "I'll pay no more." "Grow." "Work your land, same as me." "Subtitle by peritta"