I am a science fiction writer with a deep and abiding love for the military/space opera part of the genre. I only recently became familiar with steampunk...at least its trappings, having never read the literature. My first introduction to steampunk were steamfunk story excerpts the great Milton Davis wrote and posted in Black Science Fiction Society.com. Then I read The Switch by Valjeanne Jeffers, an absolutely clever and mesmerizing tale that broadened my understanding of steamfunk. Her story also demonstrated that different authors were free to interpret the genre in radically different ways while remaining within the genre's framework.
Still when I decided to contribute a story to the Steamfunk anthology, I felt a bit out of my comfort zone. Having never written anything steamfunk/steampunk oriented, I struggled with story ideas. So, how did I overcome this obstacle of the unfamiliar? Simple, I reached into history, pulled a figure from obscurity plopped him into my imagination and built a steam powered world around him! Who was this figure? His name was Benjamin Montgomery, a slave who was an inventor. Born in Virginia in 1819, Benjamin was owned by Joseph E. Davis, older brother of future Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Interestingly enough, Benjamin was taught to read and write by the Davis brothers. He was also entrusted with the responsibility of running the plantation store. This special status he enjoyed in bondage, however, was not his claim to fame.
Benjamin was a mechanic and used his skill to invent a type of propeller that helped steamboats maneuver through shallow water. In the late 1850s, he attempted to get a patent for his invention. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Attorney General's office refused to grant a patent to a slave. When the Davis brothers tried to patent Benjamin's invention, they were denied as well, due to neither being the true inventor. How ironic that when Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy, he enacted a law making it possible for slaves to patent their inventions.
I'd read about post-slavery black inventors who managed to create their technical wonders despite the harsh, spirit-crushing racial repression they lived under. Benjamin Montgomery and the many nameless slave inventors in existence in Antebellum America intrigued me all the more due to the absolute restrictiveness of their circumstances. Speculative fiction cried out for a historical figure like Benjamin to make an appearance. Once I made the decision to answer that call, all the literary pieces fell into place, making the subsequent writing of my story a smooth and pleasurable undertaking.
Those of you planning to read Steamfunk, I hope you enjoy my story Benjamin's Freedom Magic. Those who've already read it, I hope you liked it. I'm certainly looking forward to reading Steamfunk from cover to cover.
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