A Free State

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City haze shot through with morning sun. Buildings razed, buildings rising, dust drifting off the dirt streets drying in the morning air. Clank of carts on cobblestones, barrels unloaded, the men shouting, the mist burning off the river. Along Chestnut, along Walnut, along Market, they make their way, amid hollering and hammering and the smell of horse and mule shit. Open doors to taverns, men in bowler hats, bricks and shingles and the cart at the curb. The street sloping down toward the river and the docks.

Henry Sims regarded the poster as people jostled past on the sidewalk:

$200 REWARD!

RANAWAY FROM THE SUBSCRIBER, AT THE TIDES, FAIRHOPE,

VIRGINIA, ONE NEGRO, JOSEPH, AGED 19, 5 FEET AND 7 INCHES

IN HEIGHT; IS OF A LIGHT COPPER COLOR WITH GREEN EYES,

CLEVER AND PERSONABLE, AN EXCELLENT MIMIC; MAY WELL BE

TRYING TO PASS AS SPANISH OR AS FREEMAN. VERY PROFICIENT

PERFORMER ON THE BANJAR. HAD ON WHEN LAST SEEN, ROUGH

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