The Ledger of Souls

The ink was the color of old blood, a dark, reddish-brown that had refused to fade

even after four centuries. It sat in a leather-bound book, smaller than you’d

expect, in the climate-controlled basement of the Virginia Historical Society.

But the weight of it—the sheer, crushing moral gravity—felt heavy enough to tip the building

into the James River. Historian Dr. Maya Quill stood there with gloved hands, staring at a name

written in the precise, bureaucratic hand of her own ancestor, Cornelius Quill. March 12,

1640. John Punch, a Negro. In that single line, a man’s life had

been reduced to a ledger entry. He was valued at forty pounds sterling. He was sentenced