You may know me as Joseph Johnson
<img src="http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Joseph-Johnson.png" width="200" height="400" alt="Joseph Johnson">
[[Right. You remember me.]]
[[You don't remember me.]]Call me Jospeh. I've been around since time.How's it going? You still looking after all my stuff? Good. Good. I'm here about that. And the backpay.
Which place you running on my money, on my behalf right now?
[[Speke Hall]]
[[Penrhyn Castle]]OK. Quick refresh. Zip back 248 years. You came with explosives to the Caribbean. Cleared the land. Killed the folk. Hauled me across the Atlantic ocean to plant stuff on these islands. One of your work-or-die deals.
I got away and made it across to London. With a broken leg and a hat to end all hats. Like it? //The Nelson//. I became a street entertainer. A mendicant if you must. Remembering me now? Good.
You made plenty of money from the crops I planted in the West Indies. The sugar cane and so-on. And salted that moolah so nice nice back in the home country. Let's get back there. Your money built some plush gaffs in Britain. Which one should we look at?
[[Speke Hall]]
[[Penrhyn Castle]]
[[Any random Trust House|Speke Hall]]Speke Hall. Ah, that's nice. Richard Watt's gaff. Richard Watt the First. He got some nice stained glass window there, right? And some nice furnishings and even that cool medieval suit of armour. How much he make out of the Westmoreland plantations? Wanna guess? I done the maths, like a good Factor, a job Richard knew well, I done the maths, if you're going to have a reckoning, you have to have good numbers - he'd have agreed on that, Richard. So, go ahead, have a go, take your pick. Howe much was Speke Hall worth when Richard Watt bought it?:
[[8 millions pounds, today's money]]
[[4 million pounds, today's money]]
[[1 million pounds, today's money]]
[[50 cents, today's money]]Ah Penrhyn. North Wales. The whispering castle. So much misery held within that brick and slate. It's a scary place. As haunting as a lone grave on a hillside. Haunting like a hard wind hungering through a lost orphanage. Haunting like a foghorn at high sea, blaring out as a ship sinks, its human cargo doomed in the hold below. But I get ahead of myself.
Penhryn Castle. The Pennant's pile. Its ghostly foundations as ancient almost as the the bones of Alfred the Great himself. Transformed around 1830 from a heap of stones into a magnificent Norman Tower, proudly proclaiming its owner's majesty, the Pennant family's arrival at the pinnacle of wealth. A wealth that stemmed from the deeds of Richard Pennant, First Baron Penrhyn. A noble title. A noble pile. A noble man?
Step inside. Impressed? The castle's splendid objects proclaim, this is what civilization means. This is what a civilizing people can achieve. Order out of chaos. Spin the globe and stop it at any point, the red ink of Empire will be leading the way there. This is the Baron Penrhyn family story: all peacocky, shimmery, preening, as sumptuous as the furniture. But listen to the bricks, hear the walls late at night when the lights all dim and when those proud boasts hush. A different song emerges. Maybe you can hear it? Check this:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Zy2EVuETRc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Duh. Go back. Choose again.[[link text ->Speke Hall]]Double-click this passage to edit it.Correct. Good job. You chose well. Yup. Over 8 million in today's money.
Money is a vulgar subject to talk about. And exchange rates mean it's hard to be precise. But go a little North of 8mill and you still wouldn't be wrong. Sweet pickings for good ol' Richard. What he buy with it? Let's get an inventory going. Inventory. Another word that could make our Richard swoon. Click away. Let's take a closer look at what Richard spent his dough on. I propose a quick tour. Let's start with the view:
[[ The view]]
Not bad, but no cigar. Go higher, try again.You're low-balling. Go back and go higher.Well here it is. Water. Speke Hall is very close to the coastline. You can sail out quick from here. If the best years of your life are in your young adulthood, then Richard Watt's best years were spent at sea. He sailed on the slave ships, as a factor, meaning keeping an eye on the cargo. Yes, that meant primarily the human beings stuffed in the hold once they had been forced onto the ship off the west coasts of Africa. Gold Coast. Slave Coast. Richard Watt knew them all. He made good money out of slavery.
<img src="http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/The-viewsmall.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="coastline">
Let's turn around and look at what he bought when his ships all came in and he made all his mooolah.
[[The pile]]
<img src="http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ThePilesmall.jpg" width="300" height="300" alt="coastline">
A tasty pile, right? //Commodious// they'd say back in the days. Nice windows. We can zoom in on them.
[[Windows]]Very fancy windows. Each window pane tells a story. The usual story of the country houses - the wisdoom, power, wealth and all-round goodness of the property's owner. After all, what other story would you tell on your house windows?
<img src="http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/rowofwindowssmall.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="stainedglasswindows">
But what's that one? The one third from the left. Something's going on there. We should zoom in.
[[That strange window]]
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http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/singlewindowsmall-e1569334908592.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="Africanheadswindow">
The heads of Africans, with twisted metal hooped around their necks. What story is that? Is it //my// story? Or their version of my story? Is the house boasting of its slave-trading connections? Hmm. I feel a haunting coming on.
When I get vexed I get spooky. So...
[[now you see me]]
<img src="http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/spookingspekenowucmesmall.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="JJbody">
and
[[now you don't]]
<img src="http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/spookspekenowudontsmall.jpg" width="200" height="300" alt="stainedglasswindows">
That stained glass window doesn't tell you my story. But you know what, that's OK. //I'll// tell you my story, sing it for you, like I used to, back in the days before I became a haunting. You ready? Settle back. Click when you comfy.
[[Song of Speke Hall]]
<img src="http://www.peterkalu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/asongsungsmall.jpg" width="250" height="300" alt="JJinsong">