The Deposition of Silas Thorne

Fiction

RECORD OF TESTIMONY: CASE 88-B (INSURRECTIONARY CONDUCT) DATE: November 12, 1794 LOCATION: District Administrative Office, New York Company District PRESIDING: Clerk Julian Vane, on behalf of the East India Company Board of Governors WITNESS: Silas Thorne, former Overseer, Hudson Textile Facility (The witness is sworn in according to the Charter of the Company Districts.) CLERK VANE: State your name and former rank for the record. THORNE: Silas Thorne. I was the overseer for the third floor. That is what the ledger says. CLERK VANE: You were employed by the Hudson Textile Facility from 1788 until your termination in October of last year. Correct? THORNE: Correct. CLERK VANE: Please describe the events of October 14, 1793, beginning at 0600 hours. THORNE: The bells rang for the first shift. I went up to the floor and found the looms silent. Not just stopped, but ruined. The men had jammed iron bolts into the gears. There were about forty of them standing in a circle around the foreman. They weren't shouting. They were just waiting. CLERK VANE: Did you attempt to restore order? THORNE: I told them the Company would dock their rations for a week. I told them the Board doesn't care about the humidity in the dorms. They didn't move. One of them, a lad named Elias, stepped forward. He had a piece of paper in his hand. He started reading it aloud. It was a list of demands (shorter hours, cleaner water, and the right to write letters home without a Company censor). CLERK VANE: This letter, as you describe it, constitutes a violation of the Corporate Sedition Act. Who authored the document? THORNE: I don't know. I didn't get close enough to see the ink. CLERK VANE: You were observed by the facility guards as failing to intervene with sufficient vigor. Why did you remain stationary? THORNE: I saw the Correction Officers coming up the stairs. You don't stand in the way of the Correction Officers. I've seen what they do to people who stand in the way. CLERK VANE: Describe the arrival of the Correction Officers. THORNE: They didn't say a word. They came in with the long batons and the leather restraints. They didn't just take the ringleaders. They took everyone who was standing in that circle. They dragged them out by their hair or their collars. The sound of the boots on the floorboards was louder than the looms ever were. CLERK VANE: Were any company assets recovered during the sweep? THORNE: They found a crate of letters under the floorboards in the weaving room. Letters the men had written to their families in the Southern Districts. The Officers took them all. They burned them right there in the middle of the floor, using a torch from the boiler room. CLERK VANE: For the record, the seizure of private correspondence is a standard procedure under the Security Provision of the Charter. Did you witness any unauthorized violence during this seizure? THORNE: (Pause) I saw Elias get his jaw broken because he tried to grab one of the letters back. The Officer just stepped on his hand. He didn't even look down while he did it. CLERK VANE: Your tone suggests a bias, Mr. Thorne. Focus on the facts. Did the workers initiate the physical confrontation? THORNE: They were standing still until the batons came out. After that, it wasn't a confrontation. It was a cleaning. CLERK VANE: You were terminated for negligence in your duties as overseer. Do you contest this finding? THORNE: I don't contest it. I just want my final wage payout. The Company owes me for three months of service. CLERK VANE: Your wages are currently being held as collateral for the damaged looms. This deposition is concluded. (End of record.)