Benjamin Rathe
Clan: Nosferatu
Manus Nigrum Status: American Field Agent
Background: Born an African slave in the New World in 1707. He ran away to the north, to Boston when he was 16 and went to work in the shipyards there. A few months later he met and became friends with a printer's apprentice named Franklin. Together, they left Boston for the great city of Philadelphia where Rathe (an alias taken to avoid slavers) learned to read and went into the printing industry. The two friends would remain in Philadelphia until 1757, when Franklin was sent to England as the ambassador of the colonies; Rathe when with him as a spy for the revolutionaries.
By the time of the Colonial Revolution, Rathe and Franklin had been working together for years as spies for the shadowy conspirators who would bring about independence from England and later as spies among the many ambassadors of Paris. In 1780, Franklin returned to America to become a member of that nations congress, while Rathe remained in Paris as an American spy. 1780 would be the last time the two friends would see each other, Rathe was embraced in 1781 as a Nosferatu and Franklin would die in 1790. Rathe returned to the New World to attend his friends funeral and at the bidding of his sire. Rathe was first introduced to the ways of the Black Hand in 1864 when he was running escaped slaves out of the American south via the Underground Railroad. The Black Hand has used him since for reconnaissance and surveillance in and around the North American continent.
Alternate Identities: unknown
Current Whereabouts: Boston, Massachusetts.
