Denmark Vesey, Red Eagle, Sehoy, Romaine the Prophetess, Mary. And James Hemings, who fought with a spatula. Also, from the execution archives: Eve who poisoned her master Peter Montague, and the thousands of others who fought similarly in the long, ongoing war.

When a hurricane is on its way, picking up energy in abnormally hot waters, the exact path unknown, do the following: (1) Be ready to tie down essentials. Meaning, don’t tie them down quite yet—being essential (oyster bags), they have to remain accessible for as long as possible. So to be ready, we’ve built posts, rigged up lines, & arranged the equipment so everything can be tied down in an hour, should the need arise. (2) Sink the oysters. Turbulence is lower even 2 feet under the water’s surface. It takes time to get the oysters down under the surface, but it’s worth the effort. On the surface, the bags act as sails, are town off by the turbulence, and lost. During Helene, 1/3 of the un-sunk bags got torn off the line; by contrast, none of the sunk bags were came off the line. (3) Have somewhere to go, and make sure your neighbors have somewhere to go. Do not wait, as we did, 12 hours before landfall to problem-solve how to help a mixed status family evacuate. (4) Have on hand power, food, and water to last 7 days. (5) Have systems in place to generate power, food, and water to last a year. Items (1)-(4) are good to go here at Water is Life oyster farm, located in what forecasters are calling the new hurricane alley. Working on (5).