The Madder Estate

The Madder Estate a great farmstead in decline.

Summary

A historic farm which had supported the North since colonial times. This rolling farmland in the Madder Hills, toward the southern edges of the North, was one the major food suppliers for the captial city of Newfort. With its fertile land and logistically advantegous location near the old highway, the farm produced mainly grains, fruits and cotton. The name of the Madder family, the landowners, became well known through out Patria. But behind their fame, the darker side of history peeked out.

Wealth disaparites had existed in Paria since the first settlers disembarked from their ships. In the economic struggles that followed, the inequality between those who had bought great wealth with them and those who had little only grew. Under the banner of the free market, the poor were exploited with low wages and those in control still gained still more power.

The cheap labor that enabled large scale farming was indispensible to Patria's devolpment, but the class divisions planted the seeds of prejudice which became one factor behind the civil war.

The Madder's family fortunes began to dwindle with the expansion of railroads, which could bring agricultral products into the city from cheaper locals, thus elimanting the Madder Estate's geograhpical advantage. The war, and the meance of the Incarnate Hraesvelgr, only hastened the decline that inevitly accompied the changing times. Still, the price of land near the captail should see an increase before long, and more than a few people are hoping for the chance to buy the Madder land.