Out of the Machine

We start in a circle today. One word each, around the ring: how do you come aboard this morning? Tired counts. Hungry counts. Ready counts. "Pass" counts too.

One sheet, folded like a book. Cover: your name, "Day 5," the date. Then:

The first 20 minutes are quiet, on purpose. After that the points come back.

Yesterday you wrote PEOPLE on Leg 2. Today, before anything else, that leg gets the truth it is owed. Three numbers, from the records of our ship's 1716 voyage. The year before the pirates took her.

Every number was a person. A name. A family. Nobody on the ship wrote their names down. The ship's papers called them cargo. A person is not cargo.

One survivor of a later crossing, Olaudah Equiano, grew up, bought his own freedom, and wrote his whole life down so nobody could say it did not happen. His story is on the People tab if you want more.

1. Copy the three numbers to the top of THE CROSSING page.
2. Take out your Day 4 triangle. On Leg 2 write: Ouidah to Jamaica, 1716 and the count.
3. Add a small mark of respect at the middle of the leg. A star. A circle. You choose it.

This block stays quiet. No points here. Some things you do not race.

Now the second story. February 1717. Bellamy's crew catches the Whydah near the Bahamas. The records we have say taking her cost no lives. And the ship flips.

Same planks. Same sails. A different deal. The hold that carried captives now carries a free crew. About one sailor in four aboard her was a Black man, and many had freed themselves from the same trade she was built for. On this ship they voted. They ate what the captain ate. The records we have say every man got an equal share.

The machine did not change. These men found a way out of it. That is the story you work on for the rest of today.

Why would a sailor join pirates? Look at the two deals on the table in 1717 and decide for yourself.

Honesty first: the Whydah's own articles never survived. We know the pirate deal from other crews, like Bartholomew Roberts' articles from 1721. And historians still argue how equal "equal" really was. Hold both.

1. Draw the two columns on THE DEAL page. Fill each side: at least three things.
2. Under them, one sentence: which deal would YOU take, and what would scare you about it?
3. Then the whole crew makes one big ring, and the circle votes with its feet.

Warm-up rounds first, step in or hold your spot:

1. "Step in if you would rather be the navigator than the cook."
2. "Step in if you would trust 13-year-old you to steer a real ship."
3. Then the real one: "Step in if you would sign the articles." Hold still. Look around the ring. Remember who stood where.
4. Your teacher asks a few voices, in and out: one sentence. Why?

Time to meet them. The People tab holds the crew: the pilot, the boy, the sailors who freed themselves.

1. Open the People tab. Pick one person who sailed the Whydah free.
2. On THE DEAL page: their name and three facts worth keeping.
3. One line in their voice: why did YOU sign?

⚑ CREW RACE: first crew with three solid facts on three different people calls it out. 5 league points, 2 for second. A fact is solid if you can point at where the site says it.

What would freedom have meant to someone who joined this ship?

We end today in a circle. One object goes around the ring. Whoever holds it may speak. Everyone else listens.

• When it reaches you: answer the question, or say one word, or name the person you met on the People tab.
• You may also pass. Say "pass" and hand it on. That counts as an answer.
• No replying to what someone else said. The circle is for hearing, not debating.

Silence is a full answer.

Your adopted ship is out on the water right now, crewed by working sailors with their own deal: a contract, a wage, a flag.

Gently today. Look at your three people.

1. Pick one of them. Would they have seen what you learned about today? Known about it? Profited from it? Feared it?
2. Add a name if today gave you one. Strike a name if it no longer fits. Small moves.

Pitch Day is Thursday, July 30. Your lists narrow a little every day. Today counts too.