A Manifesto

I always wanted to write one.

On Thursday, May 23, 1861, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory orchestrated the greatest heist in American history.

Working as forced laborers leased to Virginia’s 115th Confederate militia, the enslaved trio stole a small boat from the spot where Colonial Virginia Governor Sir George Yeardley and Supply Officer Abraham Peirsey negotiated a …