Brendan Greeley

Like he knew what was going on.

And then, you know, and then you can see how he decided that he wanted to be a sugar planter.

and how he made that financial transition, and then exactly how money worked for him once he was on a sugar plantation.

No cash at all.

Everything was on paper.

He sold sugar to his factor.

You can read all these documents in New Orleans.

The factor kept a running account with him.

If he wanted to buy something in New Orleans, he would write a letter to the factor, and the factor would send something back up and just subtract it from his account.

He didn't have any physical cash.

And when he wanted to do something, actually, in St.

James Parish, where he was, he would write promissory notes.

Those promissory notes would circle.

He's got all the signatures on the back.

So

For me, like what I now love to do, weirdly, is read old ledgers because it's like watching a movie.

It's like running the tape back of exactly what somebody did, sometimes hour by hour by hour during their day.

When you get a sense of their commercial life, you also get a sense of their life and you can see these actions they're taking point by point.

That, I mean, and there are amazing stories.

I chased a story about this guy.