New Gods of North America.

Chapter 566 Plantation

The Beaton family acted quickly; when Wayne returned to the restaurant for lunch, the butler brought over a map.

The document listed three windmills in different locations for Wayne to choose from. Wayne randomly picked the one closest to the steam train station, and the butler said that the area had been cleared out. The land within the temporary fence surrounding the mill, as well as the houses within that area, were available for the detective agency to use freely.

Furthermore, the Beaton family seems to have granted the detective agency considerable authority, and the butler's instructions were quite detailed:

"I will arrange for someone to inform the plantation manager shortly. During the period when the mill is under the use of your Detective Agency, all employees and slaves of the plantation are prohibited from entering the premises without authorization. If any violation of the prohibition occurs, employees can ask the manager for assistance, while slaves are at the discretion of your Detective Agency."

"As for the mill and those houses, you may do whatever you wish with them, including alterations and demolitions. The plantation foremen will not try to interfere or obstruct them."

"In addition, due to the relatively short time, there may be some household items left in the houses near the mill. Your detective agency can treat those items as abandoned and unclaimed property and dispose of them as you see fit."

It sounds like the people who used to live on the plantation have been subjected to a forced relocation these past few days...

That "Papa Beaton" seemed quite gentle at the ball, but when it came to actually doing things, he turned out to be a "domineering CEO."

Write this down, I need to be more careful when talking to people in the future.

In any case, the mill problem is temporarily resolved.

Wayne escorted the butler to the back door, asking him to convey his gratitude to the Bitton family. After the butler left in his carriage, Wayne followed him out.

They arrived at the Brooke family's factory, picked up Miss Mary's brother, and the carriage headed towards the plantation location marked on the map.

When Wayne and his group arrived, the Beaton family's messenger who was in charge of notifying the plantation had not yet left. The plantation manager then took the opportunity to lead the group to visit the mill, where the handover could be completed on the spot.

The plantation was quite large, and the group needed a means of transportation to get from the foreman's and supervisor's quarters to the mill.
So Wayne, having a rare opportunity to ride a horse again, didn't continue riding in the carriage with that Brooke boy. He even picked out his horses on the spot in the stables next door. Just by looking at the number of horses, one could roughly guess how many overseers there were usually. From there, one could also roughly estimate the number of slaves and the plantation's output.

As Wayne passed by the fields, he glanced around and, not too much as he expected, the main crop grown there was tobacco.

This stuff is said to gradually degrade the land. Experienced people can tell how long tobacco has been grown here just by looking at the growth of the tobacco and the condition of the soil. Unfortunately, Wayne was only taught this knowledge at the academy. He knew that such a thing existed, but he couldn't tell the difference.

Many dark-skinned slaves were working there at that moment, and the overseers would occasionally crack their whips.
Objectively speaking, although some professors in the college have compiled statistics showing that the average lifespan of slaves on plantations was not long and the disability rate was not low, at least on the East Coast, most of those losses could not be directly attributed to the overseers.

Slaves were the property of their slave owners. Overseers had the right to beat and scold them, but they could not arbitrarily damage them.

Without the employer's authorization, the overseers generally limited their punishments to "external injuries," with exceptions only made when the slaves gathered, rebelled, or escaped. The whips were not always applied to the slaves; often, they were simply "empty blows."
However, it's not entirely unfair to say that the overseers "frequently beat and verbally abused" the slaves. At least when Wayne and his group headed towards the mill, overseers cleared the way, and any slave deemed not to be giving way in time would actually be whipped. Wayne didn't really want to see such a scene, but his sympathy for the slaves was actually less than his sympathy for the familiar natives; it wasn't strong enough for him to intervene.
So he expressed his opinion to the plantation manager, who seemed to have seen a lot of this kind of thing and understood immediately. However, the manager's response was simply to have the foremen responsible for "clearing the way" run a little further ahead.

It has a bit of a "keep the cook away from gentlemen" feel to it.

It is estimated that when those ladies and young women visited the plantation, the managers and supervisors operated in the same way.

Upon arriving at the mill, it appeared to be in relatively good condition overall, unlike some mills on manor estates where they are almost always idle, and the windmills might not even turn when they wanted to.

The foreman had two slaves brought over, and Alex Brooke skillfully directed them to operate the equipment. After inspecting it, he seemed quite satisfied: "This place has always been used, hasn't it? Just by listening to the sound it makes when it's running, you can tell it's been well maintained."

Knowing that he was being questioned, the steward quickly chimed in, “Mr. Basque is very generous; the slaves are allowed to use this mill during the off-season. They usually use it to grind beans or grains they grow themselves, which is much more convenient and less troublesome than grinding them by hand after work on some plantations. As a result, they also learn to maintain it.”

The foreman's implication was not hard to understand: if the mill broke down before the harvest season, the plantation wouldn't bother hiring craftsmen to repair it unless absolutely necessary.
If the slaves wanted to use it, they would need to learn how to perform daily maintenance and upkeep of the mill themselves.

Anyone with some knowledge of grains knows that wheat is almost a completely different food before and after milling.

Otherwise, people wouldn't have gone to such lengths to grind them—"wheat rice," made directly from wheat, is not as popular in America as the sour and chewy "black bread" of the Old World.

Alex Brook nodded in agreement, saying, "Mr. Basque is indeed generous."

After echoing the compliment, Wayne then pulled Alex Brooke aside and presented his ideas for the function of the renovated mill.
Wayne wasn't exactly a professional designer, but fortunately, his brother Brooke was a highly capable researcher. After understanding the specific requirements, he went into deep thought and eventually designed a device that, for that era, already had the rudiments of a "production line."

"Replacing the millstone with a blade and an iron disc-shaped container should be enough to grind meat. The windmill has enough power; if you think it's not grinding finely enough, just extend the grinding time. Anyway, the mill is yours to use now, and you're not charged by time."

"When mixing, you don't actually need to replace the blades—doing so would reduce the durability and sturdiness of the connecting rod—just put the minced meat back into the container, add the 'auxiliary ingredients' you mentioned in the correct proportions, and you can mix the semi-finished product you need."

"Then design a movable baffle opening on one side of the container, and put the semi-finished product into the container through the chute. The product that comes out should be able to be directly sent for steaming or cooking."

“I can also have a hole made in this wall of the mill, and design a large chute. The large steamer you need will be installed on the outside of this wall, at the end of the chute. Containers filled with semi-finished products can then slide directly into the steamer along the chute. After steaming, the finished product can be obtained, cut, and sold. Not much manpower is needed for handling in between. What do you think of this plan?”

Wayne was very satisfied. Industrial production and home production are often quite different. Having an expert help oversee things really saves trouble: "Just do as you say. If the functions are as good as I imagine, I'm even willing to pay for the equipment myself."

Alex Brook waved his hand. "No need. As we agreed, this is compensation for your machine gun 'idea'."

(End of this chapter)