A BRIEF HISTORY OF HILLFIELD (pt. 5)

5 - Red, White, and Black & Blue

            When the sun broke over Hillfield on the morning of September 1, 1779, the town was prepared to greet Colonel Tye and the Black Brigade. Joshua Murray, fermenting in Old Testament zealotry, had press-ganged Hillfield's younger, sprier boys into serving as lookouts, shaming them for their masturbatory decadences. He proceeded to plant various weapons on the premises and outfit the town with all manner of makeshift booby traps. Murray spoke little, contenting himself to quietly singing Irish folk songs with hostile lyrics lifted from the Bible. Allegedly he slept with his eyes open.

            At 8:47 AM on September 5, the thirteen-year old son of a weaver ran into town, crying that the Black Brigade was less than a mile away. Murray ordered the townsfolk to go about their normal activities until Tye arrived, but according to Filman Hazelworth's diary, Murray's shrill barking emphasized his brogue, and someone had to ask him to repeat himself. He did and promptly disappeared into the nearby Meeker's Inn.

            Tye and the Black Brigade rode into town just after 9:00 AM, and the entirety of Hillfield's citizen body gathered in the town square to present themselves to Tye. Included in the assembly were Hillfield's slaves. Tye took one look and started shaking his head with insincere disappointment. He ordered a gallows constructed and a man identified as Amos Longtickle strung up. As his men made quick time of the gallows' construction, the Hillfieldians looked on, unsure of how to proceed without Murray's instruction.

            With the gallows erected and the noose around Amos Longtickle's neck, Tye addressed the petrified townsfolk. "This is why your nation will prove stillborn," he proclaimed. "A whipped animal will work for so long before baring its teeth." Tye raised his hand, ready to order Longtickle's hanging, when a dagger whistled through the rope. It landed in the mud as Longtickle dropped to the ground. The Black Brigade immediately drew their muskets, their heads turning every which way, their horses excited and ready to take off. Only Colonel Tye maintained his poise.

            Joshua Murray's voice rang from the second-story balcony of Meeker's Inn. "Colonel Tye! I defy you, you traitorous namesake of a pagan despot!"

            Tye remained still and unimpressed. "Does the innocent betray the penitentiary when he escapes, Mr. Murray?"

            " 'The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.' Proverbs 10:14."

            "Please interpret, pastor."

            "It means, 'Fuck your twisted darkie logic.' "

            Murray drew two muskets, fired, and threw himself backwards through the balcony's glass doors.

            Hazelworth described what followed in his diary:

We ran for sanctuary as the negro brigade reared their horses and gave chase. Tye directed two of his mercenaries to dismount and pursue Murray into the inn while another guarded the exit to the back. Shots rang from inside the inn, followed by another and the neighing of a horse from behind the inn. A moment later the Irishman sprinted from behind the inn, whooping like an Indian and confusing both us and the negros. Murray proceeded to lead Tye and his barbarians throughout the town, killing them one at a time with musket, saber, pitchfork, or improvised cudgel. When trapped Murray displayed no fear at diving through glass, wood, or thicket in escape. Even when a black succeeded in wounding the Irishman with a musket shot or saber slash, Murray exacted judgment on the animal and continued to his next target. He succeeded in scalding one of the Brigade with hot stew and bludgeoned another with a slaughtered pig.

            Eventually only Colonel Tye remained alive, but when Murray dropped from a tree, Tye crippled him with a well-placed shot to the right leg. He netted Murray from atop his horse, but as he rode toward his hobbled quarry, Murray produced another musket and fired into the knee of Tye's horse. Tye fell and Murray, drawing a dagger, rushed to cut the Colonel's throat. Tye was quick to draw his own musket and pressed it to Murray's head just as the Irishman's blade met the black commander's Adam's Apple.

              What followed can only be surmised through speculation. Tye and Murray spoke to one another, but their words have not been recorded. The witnesses were likely too far away to hear, but we know that they did watch several minutes of conversation followed by a period that saw Tye and Murray each mutilate himself in turn. It is believed that, however the issue was arrived at, each man sought to prove to the other that he was more willing to endure pain and eventual death for his respective cause, for the stand-off climaxed with Murray holding Tye's musket to his own head and Tye holding Murray's dagger to his own throat.

            We don't know how the two settled the conflict, but both exchanged their weapons and walked away from one another, leaving the town in peace but perplexed. Admittedly this makes for an enigmatic and unsatisfying end to the episode, at least as it pertains to Hillfieldology. Tye would eventually prove the victor, killing Murray the following year in Monmouth County. But the two combatants engendered a distrust of both blacks and Irish that resulted in the immediate abolition of slavery in Hillfield and a great deal of strife-ridden absurdity in the years to come.

Next:

Hillfield & the New Constitution

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HILLFIELD (Pt. 4)

4 - Let the Red Flow Freely

            The problem Hillfieldologists face when studying the chapter of the town's history involving the Loyalist-killer Joshua Murray is a paucity of primary sources. Very little exists pertaining to Murray's life whatsoever. He was born in Derry, Ireland in the mid-eighteenth century and immigrated to the American colonies with his mother when he was still a young boy. They settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey where Murray grew to become a stonemason, married, and had four children. Murray was a staunch Patriot and when the Revolution erupted, he immediately enrolled in the First Regiment Monmouth Militia. There is no evidence that Joshua Murray ever rose to a rank higher than Private, but by 1778 he had earned himself an indelible reputation that persists to the present day.

As a member of the Militia, his official enemy was the Royal Army and its allies. But Murray made a name for himself by killing Americans still loyal to the English crown, and he did so with an idiosyncratic savagery that quickly made him a hero among Patriots and a virtual bogeyman to Loyalists. Allegedly the Monmouth Militia, recognizing the psychological value of Murray's wave of terror, encouraged and even covertly funded his bloodletting activities. We have no idea when he started targeting Loyalists or what the ultimate motive behind his violent distaste for them was. For many years the popular theory was that Murray, being a native Irishman, had been brought up with a particularly venomous loathing for all things British. In recent years however, this theory, being based solely on an ethnic stereotype, has lost traction. It also fails to explain Murray's single-minded hatred for Loyalists. There is no record of him attacking the Royal Army with any more vigor than every other man in his outfit. To date, however, no historian or Hillfieldologist has posited a viable alternative (Mark Krasker's "Defense-in-Girth" theory is not viable).

Complicating matters further is the lack of consensus amongst historians as to how much of Murray's terror is apocryphal and how much is to be believed. Hillfieldologists are lucky that the only surviving primary source attesting to his butchery is Filman Hazelworth's diary. It gives a detailed account of Joshua Murray's brief stay in Hillfield and the horror he brought with him. Hazelworth writes, "Less than one hour passed between Murray's ingress into the environs of the town and the occasion on which he claimed his first victim… He was retribution made manifest, invoked from Providence by Edwards himself." Debate still rages amongst Hillfieldologists as whether or not Hazelworth's word should be accepted at face value -- a debate that has triggered mutual recriminations across the internet and at least one visit to their clubhouse from Hillfield's finest.

Joshua Murray entered Hillfield on August 28, 1779, riding a massive ink-black donkey. His head was entirely hairless save for the wide bushy mustache that hung down past his mouth. Every stitch of clothing he wore was a deep burgundy, and the cross that hung from his neck was carved, likely by his own hand, from stark black-and-white stone. The Town Fathers immediately ran out to greet him with the rest of the populace looking on. The town's leaders invited him to speak with them regarding Colonel Tye in private, and Murray silently followed them into the meetinghouse. Approximately forty minutes passed before the pillars of the community emerged into the street. There is no record of what transpired or what words were exchanged in the meetinghouse, but we are able to make reasonably educated guesses in the hindsight of the following events.

Emerging from their parley with Murray the Town Fathers assembled the entirety of Hillfield's citizenry along Main Street. A few minutes later the Loyalist-killer emerged from the meetinghouse. Standing in the center of Main Street he announced in a guttural brogue that he was willing to protect the town from, as Hazelworth reports, "the darkies swinging from King George's teat." Before he would assent to do so, however, he insisted that Hillfield had to be cleansed of its Loyalist taint. He wheeled around and pointed to a one Mr. Lemuel Truburgh, owner of Hillfield's first bank (and ancestor to Elihu Truburgh, who would transform Madsen, New Jersey from a redheaded stepchild of a city in Philadelphia's shadow to one of the major metropolitan centers of the Twentieth Century). Murray had Truburgh brought forth and accused him of not only harboring Loyalist sympathies but of directly colluding with the British. Shocked by the accusation, the people looked to their civic leaders for their opinion. The leaders watched silently, so the people followed their lead and bore witness to the bloody spectacle that unfolded.

Filman Hazelworth writes,

The dreaded archangel tied M. Truburgh's hands to a nearby hitching post. He drew from inside his great coat a nightmarish blade the full length of a man's forearm. He quoted from Scripture -- Exodus I believe, "If they cry out to me, I will hear their cry. My anger will be aroused and I will kill you with the sword." I'm sickened to even commit what followed to paper. M. Murray cut into M. Truburgh's leg and the poor banker screamed like a dying pig. M. Murray cleaved away the meat from his bone, which he finally tore out with his bare hands. He held aloft the bone from M. Truburgh's body and again quoted from The Book, "The cook took up the leg with what was on it and set it before Saul. Samuel said, 'Here is what has been kept for you. Eat.' " Poor M. Truburgh was killed with his own bone through his mouth and the back of his skull.

            Whether this horrific scene happened precisely as described by Hazelworth, if at all, Joshua Murray managed to convince Hillfield that he was the man to protect them from the wrath of Colonel Tye.

Next:

Red, White, and Black & Blue

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HILLFIELD (Pt. 3)

3 - The Redcoats Are Coming!

            When open warfare finally erupted in April, 1775 between the nascent United States and the still-waxing British Empire, Hillfield came to a standstill as it debated whether to declare themselves Loyalists or take up the Patriot cause. The town's population was still predominantly Quaker and generally considered the violent revolution advocated by the Patriots anathema. On the other hand, the town's citizens found the British to be insufferably snotty and exceptionally annoying. Perhaps predictably the town fathers ultimately settled on a policy of unofficial neutrality. Hillfield would not openly declare for either their fellow Americans nor for their English overlords. It was also decided that in the event a contingent from either army was to enter the town or otherwise make demands of the citizenry, each situation would be dealt with on an individual basis.

            Isolated deep in the wooded tangle of the Pine Barrens, Hillfield remained untouched by the fires of the Revolution for the first four years of the war's hostilities. During that time life in the small town continued uninterrupted, the town's residents only peripherally aware of the conflict over their future. But on August 4, 1779, Colonel Tye brought the war to Hillfield's doorstep.

            The escaped slave had been born (or branded, rather) Titus Cornelius by his former owner, a Quaker from Monmouth County, northwest of Hillfield. Prone to drink and eschewing the Quaker practice of educating their slaves and freeing them upon their twenty-first birthdays, Tye's owner had been known as an especially unforgiving slaveholder. Shortly after Lexington and Concord Virginia's last royal governor offered freedom to all slaves who escaped and took up arms under the Loyalist banner. Tye wasted no time. He quickly escaped to Virginia and was soon back in New Jersey, armed and uniformed with the intent of crushing the colonists' rebellion. While Tye's exact date of birth is unknown, it is believed that he was still in his mid-twenties by 1778. By that point he been granted the honorific of "Colonel" for his tactical ingenuity and charismatic leadership, despite the prohibition of blacks as commissioned officers in the British Army, and been given the command of one of the most dreaded Loyalist units in the country. The Black Brigade was an elite guerilla unit of two dozen former slaves committed to supply seizures, hit-and-run attacks on Patriot outposts and detachments, and assassinations of important American leaders.

            However, when his British commanders had not given him specific missions, Tye regarded the Black Brigade's standing orders to be the liberation of slaves, particularly if those slaves belonged to Quakers, and to do so with extreme prejudice.

            On August 6, 1779, two days after Tye arrived at the secluded hamlet of Hillfield, Filman Hazelworth, a tanner, recorded the eventy of the 4th in his diary:

The Black Brigade - twenty-three ink-black negroes on twenty-three ink-black horses - rode slowly, almost sleepily, down the thoroughfare. At the head of this obsidiun (sic) mass rode a single bright eye. It was he - the Colonel Tye - astride a steed white as milk. Of a paler complection (sic) than his fellows, the Colonel was the embodiment of patrician class and command. His carriage was that of Cornwallis himself. His likeness would not be misplaced were it displayed in Charring Cross, such was his austere comportment and stentorian resolve. His compatriots, meanwhile, seemed freshly plucked from the deepest jungles of the Dark Continent, for if they be any indication, Africa is as dark of soul as it is of skin.

The Colonel, the picture of gentlemanly eloquence informed us, the townsfolk, of his identity and that of his brigands. He requested, with utmost politeness and as a fully-authorized representative of the English Crown, a litany of provisions that, were we to acquiese (sic) to their requisition, would leave our settlement on a rather frightening brink. We relented, of course, with little argument for fear of raising the ire of the Colonel's savages.

Once the provisions were delivered in full, the Colonel demanded the town's entirety of slaves and indentured servants be brought forthwith. This we did with far greater consternation. The Colonel addressed our negroes sweetly as a governess, inviting them to cast off their shackles - they were not shackled at all - and join his Brigade. Our blacks, having grown accustomed to our munificence and having been well trained, did not move or make an utterance. It was then the Colonel, betraying the primitivity of his race, ordered his men to go forth and assault our women, which they proceeded to do with ferine abandon. With the rapine concluded, the Slave Colonel demanded we free our slaves before his return in September. If we had not done so upon his arrival, he swore to raze Hillfield to the ground.

            Tye and the Black Brigade wheeled around and rode out of town, carrying their requisitions back to the Loyalist keep in Monmouth County.

            The people of Hillfield trembled at Colonel Tye's promised wrath. But they were a proud and stubborn and not altogether intelligent people and were loath to bend to a man they considered to be little more than a dark-skinned terrorist. Their deeply-prized neutrality had been violated alongside their women. They determined to violate with equal violence the vengeance of Tye and his savages.

            It was then that Hillfield turned to the only man they believed could exact that violation.

Next:

Let the Red Flow Freely