The Rebellion Burns Bright

Charleston, South Carolina
November 1st, 1783

Senator Eliyah James was back in his hometown of Charleston as Congress was in recess for the winter. After spending months in the temporary capital of the United States, Charleston seemed like a foreign place to him. It seemed like the town had grown rapidly in his absence, as he saw many new buildings and streets present on the outskirts. The two new federal schools, the University of the South and the Charleston Primary School were being constructed near the center of the town. From what he understood, the university was expected to be finished after several years, while the primary school was planned to be completed sometime next year. Laborers constantly worked on constructing the new schools, and Senator James noticed that many of them were Negros like himself. In fact, it seemed like many of the town's inhabitants were Negros now and he had only seen a few of them enslaved by their white masters.

As he strolled back towards his home near the harbor, he was stopped by a group of white men who wore expensive clothing and pulled into a small alleyway. The senator's eyebrows rose as one of the men pointed accusingly at him, "It's this Negro alright, the one that's in the senate!"

"May I help you, gentlemen?" Senator James cooly asked.

"You can start by learning your place, you damn Negro," A tall, burly looking man sneered.

The senator merely blinked. He was not unused to racism. While President Kim had helped immensely in advancing equal rights for all, there were plenty of those that still looked down on him for his race. Hell, it wasn't uncommon in Congress either, as a few white Congressmen from the South and even the North gave him odd looks if he tried to propose laws or speak up during discussions. Life was much better for him, but it wasn't completely easy. No matter how educated or how popular he was with the other Negros, some people only saw his skin color.

Like the people in front of him right now.

"Now listen here boy," The one who pointed at him earlier spoke to him face to face, "We all know that you don't belong in Congress, representing our state. At least not the proper folks in the state. How about you quietly retire and let me take your place? I know you Negros are desperate for money, working those low-end jobs and going mining. I'll offer you a lot of pesos to scramble off and never return to Philadelphia."

"You can run against me in the next election, sir," Senator James replied, "There will be one in three years. One more year for the House elections. If anything, you could've run in the last election."

"I did and you damn Negros mobbed the ballot boxes. Robbed me of my chance of representing the real people of this state. Now I'll give you one more chance; take the damn money and resign peacefully. Or me and my boys might have a few troubles with you."

A few of the members of the group were armed with clubs and knives and Senator James quickly realized that he was hidden from any civilians. But hell, he wasn't going to let some moping white men tell him what to do or what not to do. The last thing the state needed was a bunch of racist white folks representing the state and sending it back to the time before the revolution, with slavery and all. So the senator raised his chin and said, "No."

He kicked his nearest captor and bolted for the streets, with the angry group in tow. When he reached the streets, he felt a blow to his back and tumbled forward onto the ground, ruining his clothes. He expected another blow to come, but instead heard a bunch of shouting and yelling. The senator looked up from his place on the ground and saw that four men sky blue uniforms were fighting with the hooligans with muskets. One of the uniformed men went down on the ground after being stabbed, but the other three fired on their assailants. Two of them went down and the rest immediately surrendered.

"You alright, senator?"

Senator James looked up to see a young white man holding out his hand to help him up. The African American man took the hand hesitantly and rose back onto his feets, his back still stinging from the blow he received earlier. The man saw that his back was injured and winced, "We'll escort you to a doctor after we toss these... criminals into prison."

"Are you the police?" Senator James wheezed.

"Yep, South Carolina State Police, just created last year," The police officer proudly stated, "You're lucky, senator. A few lads playing on the streets saw those ruffians drag you into that alley and reported it straight to us. We came as fast as we could. Thankfully the police building was nearby so the trip didn't take too long."

The senator nodded as more uniformed men arrived on the scene and dragged the group away, while others tended to the officer that was stabbed, "Will he be alright?"

"I can't say for sure, but I sure hope so. Martin is a good officer and a war veteran to boot."

"I pray that he is alright, he got hurt thanks to me. They wanted me to resign and take a bribe so that they could snap up the seat in Congress for themselves."

The officer's eyes widened, "Those damn bastards. Don't listen to them senator, you're a fine Congressman."

"You follow my works?"

"You constantly update what's going on in Philadelphia through the newspapers and listen to your constituents well," The officer blushed, "I aspire to run for Congress and be like you, sir."

Senator James chuckled, "That's good to hear. What is your name?"

"Samuel Earle, I'm twenty-three."

+++++
AN: Samuel Earle is a real person folks. And if you do a brief search about his background, you might understand why I inserted him into the update.