1
00:02:30,303 --> 00:02:34,171
Way each of us see the world
be affected by two things...
2
00:02:36,754 --> 00:02:38,501
...what we know...
3
00:02:39,527 --> 00:02:41,345
and what we believe.
4
00:02:43,756 --> 00:02:45,798
The first thing I knew...
5
00:02:48,369 --> 00:02:50,688
...was to be afraid of the white man.
6
00:02:53,086 --> 00:02:55,860
To be terrified
of them carryin' me away.
7
00:02:58,471 --> 00:03:01,699
I had two sisters carried away
in a chain gang.
8
00:03:05,614 --> 00:03:09,240
Could barely walk when the
first one, Mariah, was taken.
9
00:03:14,077 --> 00:03:17,322
I was too young to understand
10
00:03:17,357 --> 00:03:19,617
how someone could just disappear.
11
00:03:22,352 --> 00:03:25,423
But I wasn't too young
to feel my momma's grief.
12
00:03:28,343 --> 00:03:31,529
It's clawed at that emptiness
as long as I can remember.
13
00:03:34,732 --> 00:03:37,301
And that's shaped my fear of white men.
14
00:03:46,795 --> 00:03:49,213
And it ain't gone away in all my years.
15
00:03:53,403 --> 00:03:55,136
So imagine how I must feel
16
00:03:55,171 --> 00:03:57,672
starin' out at all of y'all right now.
17
00:04:08,765 --> 00:04:10,735
I grew up like a neglected weed.
18
00:04:15,659 --> 00:04:17,137
Ignorant of liberty,
19
00:04:18,862 --> 00:04:20,945
havin' no experience of it.
20
00:04:24,834 --> 00:04:28,167
Then I was not happy or contented.
21
00:04:30,707 --> 00:04:32,040
And now I been free,
22
00:04:32,075 --> 00:04:35,721
I know what a dreadful condition
slavery is.
23
00:04:42,705 --> 00:04:46,253
I imagine a lot of y'all done
come across Uncle Tom's Cabin?
24
00:04:50,660 --> 00:04:52,694
I've heard it read, and I tell you,
25
00:04:52,729 --> 00:04:55,530
Ms. Stowe's pen hasn't begun
to paint what slavery is
26
00:04:55,565 --> 00:04:58,055
as I've seen it in the far South.
27
00:05:00,609 --> 00:05:02,626
It's the next thing to hell.
28
00:05:06,449 --> 00:05:09,666
If a person would send another
into bondage,
29
00:05:11,450 --> 00:05:12,980
he would, it appears to me,
30
00:05:13,016 --> 00:05:15,638
be bad enough to send him
to hell, if he could.
31
00:05:22,659 --> 00:05:25,143
But I suppose
y'all share that sentiment.
32
00:05:26,329 --> 00:05:28,039
That's why you're here.
33
00:05:29,499 --> 00:05:31,414
We of like mind.
34
00:05:34,371 --> 00:05:35,837
What y'all really came to hear
35
00:05:36,342 --> 00:05:39,670
is how I defied all the odds
and escaped hell.
36
00:05:46,696 --> 00:05:49,222
To tell you how I came to be free,
37
00:05:50,926 --> 00:05:52,998
first you got to understand
38
00:05:54,524 --> 00:05:58,126
what bondage was like for me.
39
00:06:00,490 --> 00:06:02,597
How it attacks the senses.
40
00:06:05,394 --> 00:06:06,870
The sound of it.
41
00:06:08,471 --> 00:06:11,086
The crack of a whip like thunder.
42
00:06:13,743 --> 00:06:14,982
The feel of it.
43
00:06:18,448 --> 00:06:21,792
Like you could
barely take a full breath.
44
00:06:25,722 --> 00:06:29,957
The taste of it, like all
your teeth made of copper.
45
00:06:31,828 --> 00:06:33,217
The smell of it.
46
00:06:34,998 --> 00:06:38,436
The fadin' stench
of everybody sold away.
47
00:06:42,338 --> 00:06:43,713
And the look of it.
48
00:06:48,813 --> 00:06:51,114
Every eye turned down to the ground,
49
00:06:53,750 --> 00:06:55,134
away from the horror.
50
00:07:02,659 --> 00:07:05,234
There were nobody better
at turnin' an eye
51
00:07:06,196 --> 00:07:08,236
than the real Harriet, my momma.
52
00:07:09,436 --> 00:07:11,032
She worked up in the house,
53
00:07:11,067 --> 00:07:14,108
and she was well-versed
in the way of white folks.
54
00:07:15,505 --> 00:07:17,660
How to judge they moods,
55
00:07:17,695 --> 00:07:20,405
how to move through they space
like a spirit,
56
00:07:22,111 --> 00:07:24,679
how to listen and remember secrets
57
00:07:24,714 --> 00:07:26,046
that might be of use later.
58
00:07:27,484 --> 00:07:30,118
Her lessons would be helpful
once I started movin' cargo,
59
00:07:30,153 --> 00:07:35,005
but in the meantime,
I had no use for it.
60
00:07:35,658 --> 00:07:39,523
The last place I wanted to be
was workin' in the house.
61
00:07:40,697 --> 00:07:42,666
But from the moment I could work,
62
00:07:43,900 --> 00:07:45,865
that's where I found myself.
63
00:07:47,904 --> 00:07:51,405
I wasn't no taller than
them chairs y'all sittin' in
64
00:07:51,708 --> 00:07:55,322
when Mr. Cooks came on his horse
one mornin' and took me away.
65
00:07:56,479 --> 00:07:59,714
My massa had hired me out
to him and his wife.
66
00:07:59,749 --> 00:08:03,786
And she was keen
on teachin' me to weave for her.
67
00:08:04,842 --> 00:08:06,821
Problem is my little hands
68
00:08:06,856 --> 00:08:08,890
just wouldn't take
to that woman's lesson,
69
00:08:08,925 --> 00:08:11,074
no matter how hard she nagged.
70
00:08:11,099 --> 00:08:12,539
And she nagged.
71
00:08:13,199 --> 00:08:15,398
"Come on, little nig!
Get that needle through!
72
00:08:15,433 --> 00:08:17,251
"Kick them legs out, you little nig!
73
00:08:17,286 --> 00:08:18,533
Work that loom!"
74
00:08:18,568 --> 00:08:19,634
She would give herself a headache,
75
00:08:19,670 --> 00:08:22,724
but I could never seem to manage it.
76
00:08:24,941 --> 00:08:27,341
Some might say
that was under my own design,
77
00:08:27,377 --> 00:08:28,802
but you'll never hear me say that.
78
00:08:30,131 --> 00:08:31,162
Soon enough,
79
00:08:31,197 --> 00:08:33,552
the mistress got tired
of tryin' to teach me,
80
00:08:34,250 --> 00:08:37,920
and Mr. Cooks tasked me
with checkin' the muskrat traps.
81
00:08:38,414 --> 00:08:39,987
Mm, that's right,
82
00:08:40,023 --> 00:08:42,885
somebody know
how terrible a job that be.
83
00:08:44,060 --> 00:08:47,562
But I was workin' under God's roof,
84
00:08:47,597 --> 00:08:50,022
and that's... that's what I preferred.
85
00:08:51,834 --> 00:08:54,302
My body had other preferences.
86
00:08:54,337 --> 00:08:58,072
I got real sick
movin' through them swamps.
87
00:08:58,107 --> 00:09:00,474
Sick enough
that Mr. Cooks sent me back home
88
00:09:00,510 --> 00:09:02,243
after my momma done complain to massa
89
00:09:02,278 --> 00:09:05,079
that I be dead without no lookin' after.
90
00:09:05,114 --> 00:09:07,748
And a dead slave ain't worth nothin'.
91
00:09:08,214 --> 00:09:12,920
I remember thinkin' then
that my momma had won.
92
00:09:15,391 --> 00:09:17,046
That maybe that victory,
93
00:09:18,061 --> 00:09:19,529
no matter how small,
94
00:09:20,823 --> 00:09:22,125
was freedom.
95
00:09:26,235 --> 00:09:28,064
I was soon reminded...
96
00:09:29,018 --> 00:09:30,798
and I constantly would be...
97
00:09:32,175 --> 00:09:34,508
that there ain't
no such thing as triumph
98
00:09:34,544 --> 00:09:36,566
under the conditions of slavery.
99
00:09:39,326 --> 00:09:41,349
Just respite.
100
00:09:55,604 --> 00:09:57,904
Black folk, we know pain.
101
00:09:58,365 --> 00:10:00,612
Known it a long time.
102
00:10:03,278 --> 00:10:06,480
I got more scars on my body
than I can count.
103
00:10:07,799 --> 00:10:10,411
Miss Susan, the next woman
I was hired out to,
104
00:10:10,446 --> 00:10:12,548
she gave me a lot of 'em.
105
00:10:13,149 --> 00:10:16,617
The first day, she told me to
dust and sweep the great room.
106
00:10:16,653 --> 00:10:19,053
No instruction. She just
pushed the broom in my hand
107
00:10:19,088 --> 00:10:20,213
and left me to work.
108
00:10:21,024 --> 00:10:23,724
And when she returned, she
wasn't happy with what she saw,
109
00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:25,426
so she took a rawhide and...
110
00:10:29,078 --> 00:10:30,830
She had me come at it again.
111
00:10:31,801 --> 00:10:34,235
No word 'bout what I done wrong.
112
00:10:34,270 --> 00:10:36,671
I tried my best
to collect every piece of dust.
113
00:10:36,706 --> 00:10:39,941
Even had that thing in my hand,
dusting my own blood.
114
00:10:41,126 --> 00:10:42,829
But when she returned...
115
00:10:49,318 --> 00:10:51,751
I took up that broom once more...
116
00:10:53,556 --> 00:10:55,101
and then again...
117
00:11:02,383 --> 00:11:04,432
I never cried out once.
118
00:11:06,114 --> 00:11:08,465
I wouldn't give Miss Susan
the satisfaction.
119
00:11:10,339 --> 00:11:12,920
That's how I learned to love the pain.
120
00:11:14,510 --> 00:11:16,473
Every time I got hit,
121
00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:19,655
I took it as an opportunity.
122
00:11:20,937 --> 00:11:22,617
For defiance.
123
00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:27,472
To not give anyone
the reaction they expected.
124
00:11:29,831 --> 00:11:32,754
And then I thought, again,
125
00:11:34,197 --> 00:11:36,207
maybe that there was freedom.
126
00:11:38,780 --> 00:11:40,310
But I couldn't reconcile
127
00:11:41,637 --> 00:11:44,447
why somethin' everybody held so precious
128
00:11:45,374 --> 00:11:47,072
come from pain.
129
00:11:48,511 --> 00:11:51,144
There had to be
an easier way to it than that.
130
00:11:57,386 --> 00:11:58,648
One mornin',
131
00:11:59,922 --> 00:12:04,625
Miss Susan and her husband
got into a ugly screamin' match.
132
00:12:04,660 --> 00:12:07,605
While they scream and scream,
I just wait.
133
00:12:09,298 --> 00:12:12,108
My eyes glued on a bowl on the table.
134
00:12:14,844 --> 00:12:16,704
You know what was in it?
135
00:12:20,076 --> 00:12:22,510
Lumps of pure white sugar.
136
00:12:24,013 --> 00:12:26,680
When the mistress' back was turned,
137
00:12:26,716 --> 00:12:28,949
I move real slow.
138
00:12:31,420 --> 00:12:34,262
Reached my hand
right into that sugar bowl.
139
00:12:35,591 --> 00:12:38,993
Took just one lump.
140
00:12:39,028 --> 00:12:40,661
And that old bat must've heard me,
141
00:12:40,696 --> 00:12:42,997
'cause she had the rawhide down,
comin' at me like a storm,
142
00:12:43,032 --> 00:12:45,966
but I gave one jump
out that door, and I flew!
143
00:12:46,002 --> 00:12:47,468
I ran, and I ran.
144
00:12:47,503 --> 00:12:49,003
Sugar meltin' on my tongue.
145
00:12:49,038 --> 00:12:50,604
Nothin' ain't taste so good in my life.
146
00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:52,139
I ran. I ain't know where I was goin'.
147
00:12:52,175 --> 00:12:53,941
I ain't had nowhere to go,
but it didn't matter
148
00:12:53,976 --> 00:12:55,276
in that moment.
149
00:12:55,311 --> 00:12:58,245
'Cause I had just stolen
what joy I could, and that,
150
00:12:58,281 --> 00:13:01,649
that, that felt like freedom!
151
00:13:07,087 --> 00:13:08,821
If you'd asked anybody
152
00:13:09,592 --> 00:13:11,055
about little Minty...
153
00:13:12,161 --> 00:13:14,270
that's what they called me back then...
154
00:13:14,830 --> 00:13:16,103
they'd have told you.
155
00:13:18,126 --> 00:13:21,361
I was the most rebellious thing.
156
00:13:21,604 --> 00:13:23,208
Mischievous, too.
157
00:13:24,326 --> 00:13:26,234
And I took pride in that.
158
00:13:27,410 --> 00:13:31,424
Knowin' they ain't own me in spirit.
159
00:13:33,595 --> 00:13:35,544
And maybe that's
how I ought to have ended up,
160
00:13:37,046 --> 00:13:39,605
findin' freedom on the edges,
161
00:13:40,857 --> 00:13:42,685
were it not for that one thing.
162
00:13:43,659 --> 00:13:45,830
See, there be things
that happen in your life.
163
00:13:46,429 --> 00:13:48,494
If you're lucky, maybe only one thing.
164
00:13:49,065 --> 00:13:51,917
Somethin' that splits your life in two.
165
00:13:53,069 --> 00:13:55,606
A before and a after.
166
00:13:56,239 --> 00:13:58,439
I'm sure most of y'all done heard
167
00:13:58,474 --> 00:14:02,142
this scar got somethin' to do
with my spells.
168
00:14:02,178 --> 00:14:05,412
How it is I just nod off
169
00:14:05,448 --> 00:14:07,454
in the middle of a sentence...
170
00:14:10,953 --> 00:14:12,453
...and start right back up again.
171
00:14:14,123 --> 00:14:17,157
I done heard all the stories
about how I came about it.
172
00:14:17,193 --> 00:14:20,995
That I fell 50 feet off a cliff
'fore I climbed my way back up.
173
00:14:21,447 --> 00:14:22,630
That I took a bullet
174
00:14:22,665 --> 00:14:25,799
from a catcher on the outskirts
of a Kentucky farm.
175
00:14:25,835 --> 00:14:29,904
That I fought off six men, armed
with hammers, to a standstill.
176
00:14:30,940 --> 00:14:32,571
Truth be told...
177
00:14:33,965 --> 00:14:36,244
I was worried about my hair.
178
00:14:37,894 --> 00:14:39,894
It's the truth. It wasn't never combed.
179
00:14:39,919 --> 00:14:41,785
Stood out like a bushel basket.
180
00:14:42,118 --> 00:14:45,119
It was so bad, I would take
the grease on my fingers
181
00:14:45,154 --> 00:14:47,421
after dinner
and wipe it across my forehead,
182
00:14:47,456 --> 00:14:49,402
tryin' to tame the wildness.
183
00:14:52,161 --> 00:14:54,497
That's what I remember most
about that day.
184
00:14:55,850 --> 00:14:59,408
I was fussin' with my hair in
the front window of the store,
185
00:14:59,443 --> 00:15:02,211
too ashamed to go in lookin' like I did,
186
00:15:02,602 --> 00:15:04,280
when out of nowhere,
187
00:15:04,315 --> 00:15:07,983
I see a white man chasin' after
one of his rebellious slaves.
188
00:15:08,019 --> 00:15:09,818
And I see his massa raise his hand
189
00:15:09,854 --> 00:15:12,321
to throw a heavy iron weight
at that slave,
190
00:15:12,356 --> 00:15:13,518
and...
191
00:15:14,626 --> 00:15:16,508
I don't remember anything after that.
192
00:15:18,996 --> 00:15:21,730
They told me it struck me in my head.
193
00:15:23,013 --> 00:15:26,743
That's when my "after" started.
194
00:15:29,273 --> 00:15:30,974
In my spells,
195
00:15:32,936 --> 00:15:34,622
my spirit would go travelin',
196
00:15:36,867 --> 00:15:39,150
flyin' to distant lands.
197
00:15:42,065 --> 00:15:45,499
And I heard a voice of someone speakin'
198
00:15:45,524 --> 00:15:48,725
in the language of the old
prophets in its grand flow.
199
00:15:48,859 --> 00:15:50,492
And I didn't understand it at first.
200
00:15:50,528 --> 00:15:52,047
I didn't know what to make of it.
201
00:15:52,763 --> 00:15:54,681
But then I came to understand
202
00:15:55,726 --> 00:15:57,320
it was the voice of Him.
203
00:15:59,569 --> 00:16:01,600
The bringer of all good things.
204
00:16:02,873 --> 00:16:05,574
He was showin' me what was possible.
205
00:16:05,999 --> 00:16:08,811
I thought all my little acts of
defiance added up to somethin',
206
00:16:08,846 --> 00:16:10,512
but they ain't.
207
00:16:10,548 --> 00:16:13,366
And all them people callin' me a rebel
208
00:16:14,151 --> 00:16:16,544
was just as lost as I was.
209
00:16:18,488 --> 00:16:21,608
There ain't no negotiations on freedom.
210
00:16:23,127 --> 00:16:24,912
I was spendin' all my time
211
00:16:25,642 --> 00:16:27,721
knowin' things
instead of believin' them.
212
00:16:28,478 --> 00:16:31,873
And that's the first step
to truly being free.
213
00:16:34,071 --> 00:16:37,592
When you can see past
all the things that you know
214
00:16:39,056 --> 00:16:40,808
and believe in somethin' better.
215
00:16:43,047 --> 00:16:44,389
It ain't easy.
216
00:16:45,916 --> 00:16:48,041
But that's the work that must be done.
217
00:16:50,788 --> 00:16:54,071
I was finally on my way to bein'
what everybody accused me of.
218
00:16:56,794 --> 00:16:58,727
I was ready to be a rebel.
219
00:17:06,677 --> 00:17:09,244
Funny thing is, just
'cause you believe somethin'
220
00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:11,747
don't mean anybody else ready to.
221
00:17:15,953 --> 00:17:18,253
What my scar look like to you?
222
00:17:20,107 --> 00:17:21,156
A bird?
223
00:17:21,192 --> 00:17:23,492
That's what I always thought, too.
224
00:17:23,527 --> 00:17:26,295
And after that day in the store,
durin' my spells,
225
00:17:26,330 --> 00:17:29,264
I would always be dreamin' 'bout flyin'.
226
00:17:29,590 --> 00:17:31,066
Way up high.
227
00:17:31,279 --> 00:17:33,719
So high I could almost touch the sun.
228
00:17:34,271 --> 00:17:37,873
Just soarin' over fields and-and towns
229
00:17:37,908 --> 00:17:40,221
and rivers and mountains.
230
00:17:40,703 --> 00:17:45,644
I believed I was supposed
to be as free as a bird.
231
00:17:47,067 --> 00:17:51,330
But I still knew I wasn't.
232
00:17:53,691 --> 00:17:56,425
I'd gotten a small measure of it
by convincin' my massa
233
00:17:56,460 --> 00:17:58,601
to let me hire myself out.
234
00:17:59,163 --> 00:18:01,797
Find my own work on my own time.
235
00:18:02,177 --> 00:18:03,966
My daddy was a timber inspector.
236
00:18:04,001 --> 00:18:06,268
And like old Sojourner,
237
00:18:06,303 --> 00:18:09,218
I could work just as hard as any man.
238
00:18:10,241 --> 00:18:12,674
Even found myself one to marry.
239
00:18:12,710 --> 00:18:14,507
John Tubman.
240
00:18:16,450 --> 00:18:18,847
All that gave me some small
comfort for some time,
241
00:18:18,883 --> 00:18:20,955
till I fell sick one winter,
242
00:18:21,485 --> 00:18:23,122
which I sometimes do.
243
00:18:24,388 --> 00:18:28,857
And when Massa Stewart got word,
he started lookin' to sell me,
244
00:18:28,893 --> 00:18:30,626
as he sometimes do.
245
00:18:31,098 --> 00:18:35,564
So from Christmas till March,
I worked as I could,
246
00:18:35,599 --> 00:18:38,867
and I prayed
through all the long nights.
247
00:18:38,903 --> 00:18:41,962
I groaned and I prayed for ol' massa.
248
00:18:49,813 --> 00:18:51,179
"Oh, Lord,
249
00:18:52,116 --> 00:18:53,852
"convert massa.
250
00:18:55,284 --> 00:18:56,954
"Oh, Lord,
251
00:18:57,354 --> 00:18:59,164
change that man's heart."
252
00:19:00,172 --> 00:19:02,875
I prayed all day and night
253
00:19:03,661 --> 00:19:07,787
for a heart in my massa,
until the first of March.
254
00:19:08,652 --> 00:19:11,101
And all that time,
you know what he was doin'?
255
00:19:12,515 --> 00:19:14,703
He was still tryin' to sell me.
256
00:19:14,738 --> 00:19:16,684
So I changed my prayer.
257
00:19:21,404 --> 00:19:24,321
"Oh, Lord, if you ain't never
gonna change that man's heart,
258
00:19:27,211 --> 00:19:29,651
then kill him, Lord,
and take him out the way."
259
00:19:35,659 --> 00:19:38,327
Not a week passed, and massa was dead.
260
00:19:38,802 --> 00:19:43,001
Died just like he lived,
an old bad and wicked man.
261
00:19:44,778 --> 00:19:47,602
I'd give all the world
full of gold, if I had it,
262
00:19:47,638 --> 00:19:50,361
to bring that poor soul back. I would.
263
00:19:51,909 --> 00:19:54,321
But I could pray for him no longer.
264
00:19:55,609 --> 00:19:58,013
'Cause I knew then that the Lord
wasn't just speakin' to me,
265
00:19:58,048 --> 00:20:00,649
He was listenin'.
This be a conversation.
266
00:20:01,122 --> 00:20:03,740
And I knew he was prepared
to give me anything I needed,
267
00:20:03,775 --> 00:20:05,654
and I ain't want to waste it,
not on no man
268
00:20:05,689 --> 00:20:07,289
who ain't deserve it or on myself,
269
00:20:07,324 --> 00:20:09,224
'cause of the guilt weighin' my soul.
270
00:20:09,928 --> 00:20:11,626
You have to be intentional
with your aim,
271
00:20:11,662 --> 00:20:14,088
'cause he will provide.
272
00:20:15,699 --> 00:20:19,434
And from that moment on,
I knew what my intention was.
273
00:20:21,338 --> 00:20:23,520
I aimed to escape.
274
00:20:25,943 --> 00:20:28,192
Now, I knew it wasn't gonna be easy.
275
00:20:29,380 --> 00:20:32,629
The backwoods of Maryland
be uneven and hard goin'.
276
00:20:33,382 --> 00:20:35,083
And after massa's death,
everybody was scared.
277
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:36,910
That's how it is in the South.
278
00:20:37,679 --> 00:20:40,218
A white planter's death
always comes with sells.
279
00:20:40,253 --> 00:20:42,824
And since me and my brother
was already lined up
280
00:20:42,860 --> 00:20:45,060
and massa's debts was bein' called in,
281
00:20:45,095 --> 00:20:47,396
the mistress was lookin'
for somethin' easy.
282
00:20:47,431 --> 00:20:50,766
So I believed we had to go then and now.
283
00:20:50,801 --> 00:20:52,267
But what I say earlier?
284
00:20:52,302 --> 00:20:53,769
Just 'cause you believe somethin'
285
00:20:53,804 --> 00:20:56,238
don't mean anybody else ready to.
286
00:20:56,703 --> 00:20:58,740
My brothers had their doubts.
287
00:20:59,267 --> 00:21:01,251
So I convinced 'em to run.
288
00:21:04,982 --> 00:21:07,275
That was my first mistake.
289
00:21:11,055 --> 00:21:12,847
It was a Saturday night.
290
00:21:14,111 --> 00:21:15,891
Ain't nobody be watchin' you on His day.
291
00:21:15,926 --> 00:21:17,767
You could get a good head start.
292
00:21:19,582 --> 00:21:22,310
But the moon was
shinin' bright that night.
293
00:21:23,187 --> 00:21:24,666
With our long shadows,
294
00:21:24,701 --> 00:21:27,390
looked like eight of us
was runnin' 'stead of four.
295
00:21:28,607 --> 00:21:30,105
We ain't gone but a mile,
296
00:21:30,140 --> 00:21:32,974
and them boys start arguing
over which way to go.
297
00:21:33,010 --> 00:21:35,190
One say this way,
the other say that way.
298
00:21:35,712 --> 00:21:37,279
And next thing I knew,
299
00:21:37,314 --> 00:21:39,423
them boys was talkin' 'bout
turnin' around.
300
00:21:40,117 --> 00:21:43,064
Ain't but a mile,
and they was ready to give up.
301
00:21:44,783 --> 00:21:47,567
I meant to keep on,
but they dragged me back.
302
00:21:49,326 --> 00:21:53,495
And that was the last time
I convinced anybody to run.
303
00:21:54,161 --> 00:21:56,798
That freedom fire, that ain't somethin'
304
00:21:56,834 --> 00:22:00,235
that can be stoked in someone else.
305
00:22:00,270 --> 00:22:02,007
And embers ain't enough.
306
00:22:03,807 --> 00:22:07,209
I seen a wildfire once
when I was younger.
307
00:22:07,244 --> 00:22:09,578
I stood right at the edge of it
with my daddy.
308
00:22:09,613 --> 00:22:11,546
I stared at it for a long time,
309
00:22:11,582 --> 00:22:14,082
and still I barely got the words
to describe it.
310
00:22:14,118 --> 00:22:16,485
The heat, the hum of activity,
311
00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:18,854
the relentless power
of them flames consumin'
312
00:22:18,889 --> 00:22:20,455
everything in its path.
313
00:22:20,491 --> 00:22:23,892
That's how you got to burn
for freedom... wild-like,
314
00:22:23,927 --> 00:22:26,995
ready to scorch any doubt in your path.
315
00:22:27,030 --> 00:22:28,919
'Cause that's what it's gonna take.
316
00:22:29,740 --> 00:22:32,934
My brothers didn't have it,
not yet, but I did.
317
00:22:32,970 --> 00:22:35,203
And wasn't nobody gonna stop me
at that point.
318
00:22:35,239 --> 00:22:38,265
This time, I was gonna go at it alone.
319
00:22:38,976 --> 00:22:40,675
Well, that-that ain't exactly true.
320
00:22:40,711 --> 00:22:42,844
I-I spoke to Miss Leverton.
321
00:22:43,102 --> 00:22:45,680
Her husband owned the mill nearby,
322
00:22:46,023 --> 00:22:48,283
and they were known abolitionists.
323
00:22:48,629 --> 00:22:50,752
I asked for her help,
and she gave me directions
324
00:22:50,787 --> 00:22:52,638
to the first safe house on my journey.
325
00:22:55,526 --> 00:22:59,639
But that first step
off the plantation...
326
00:23:08,968 --> 00:23:10,872
...that'd just be me.
327
00:23:19,183 --> 00:23:21,215
I walked out into the unknown,
328
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,054
heading to a place
I'd only heard about in stories:
329
00:23:26,089 --> 00:23:27,573
Pennsylvania.
330
00:23:29,534 --> 00:23:31,893
I wish I could say nothing's
harder than that first step,
331
00:23:31,929 --> 00:23:36,064
but... all of them be hard.
332
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:42,002
I made my way along creek beds,
pickin' waterways over roads,
333
00:23:42,027 --> 00:23:44,527
followin' the North Star
when I could see it,
334
00:23:44,813 --> 00:23:48,030
taking help all along the way
whenever it was given.
335
00:23:48,694 --> 00:23:50,111
I got through Maryland with ease,
336
00:23:50,147 --> 00:23:52,045
Delaware with a little less.
337
00:23:52,950 --> 00:23:56,710
I listened to the Lord's voice
guidin' me,
338
00:23:57,487 --> 00:23:59,894
protectin' me from danger.
339
00:24:00,991 --> 00:24:05,157
When it was near,
it would always come...
340
00:24:06,330 --> 00:24:08,246
like a flutter in my heart.
341
00:24:09,607 --> 00:24:11,941
I knew he wouldn't lead me astray.
342
00:24:17,975 --> 00:24:20,175
And then, finally...
343
00:24:22,079 --> 00:24:24,045
...I crossed the line.
344
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,015
I was in Pennsylvania.
345
00:24:42,199 --> 00:24:44,478
I looked at my hands...
346
00:24:47,771 --> 00:24:49,721
...see if I was the same person.
347
00:24:53,377 --> 00:24:56,183
There was such a glory over everything.
348
00:24:57,814 --> 00:25:01,883
The sun come like gold through the trees
349
00:25:01,918 --> 00:25:03,151
and over the fields.
350
00:25:03,186 --> 00:25:05,270
I felt like I was in heaven.
351
00:25:05,305 --> 00:25:06,988
I had crossed the line.
352
00:25:07,024 --> 00:25:08,506
I...
353
00:25:09,293 --> 00:25:10,588
I was free.
354
00:25:19,336 --> 00:25:23,381
But there was no one to welcome
me to the land of freedom.
355
00:25:25,876 --> 00:25:29,411
I was a stranger in a strange land.
356
00:25:33,550 --> 00:25:37,578
My home, after all,
was down in Maryland,
357
00:25:38,590 --> 00:25:41,890
'cause my father and mother,
358
00:25:41,925 --> 00:25:44,726
brothers and sisters and friends
was all there.
359
00:25:44,761 --> 00:25:47,128
But I was free. And they should be free.
360
00:25:47,164 --> 00:25:48,334
I believe that.
361
00:25:49,301 --> 00:25:51,766
I'd make a home in the North
362
00:25:51,802 --> 00:25:53,768
and bring 'em there, God helpin' me.
363
00:25:53,804 --> 00:25:55,170
Oh, I prayed then.
364
00:25:55,205 --> 00:25:56,646
I said, "Lord,
365
00:25:57,641 --> 00:26:00,223
"I'm-a hold steady on to you,
366
00:26:01,445 --> 00:26:04,190
and I know you'll see me through."
367
00:26:07,598 --> 00:26:09,272
I was goin' back.
368
00:26:10,554 --> 00:26:13,054
By the time I did, the activity...
369
00:26:13,525 --> 00:26:15,857
the activity in the capital
had shifted the ground
370
00:26:15,892 --> 00:26:17,405
from under us.
371
00:26:20,897 --> 00:26:24,326
And nowhere was safe
in these United States
372
00:26:25,135 --> 00:26:26,710
for me or mine.
373
00:26:41,831 --> 00:26:45,466
Mr. Douglass could always speak
on the Fugitive Slave Act,
374
00:26:45,502 --> 00:26:48,685
the Bloodhound Law, better than I could.
375
00:26:50,367 --> 00:26:51,629
He'd say something like...
376
00:26:54,277 --> 00:26:57,541
"Your lawmakers from up high
377
00:26:58,748 --> 00:27:01,816
"have commanded
all good citizens to engage
378
00:27:01,851 --> 00:27:04,949
"in this hellish sport
where the fugitive slave
379
00:27:05,355 --> 00:27:07,255
is but game."
380
00:27:07,657 --> 00:27:08,956
Any of y'all know him,
381
00:27:08,992 --> 00:27:10,892
don't you dare tell Fred I did this.
382
00:27:12,163 --> 00:27:14,897
He'd chastise me at our next meetin'.
383
00:27:18,234 --> 00:27:22,070
"There isn't anywhere safe
in these United States
384
00:27:22,105 --> 00:27:24,055
"for the fugitive slave.
385
00:27:24,541 --> 00:27:28,309
"The whole armory of Northern
law has no shield for you.
386
00:27:28,345 --> 00:27:32,580
"In fact, the point of its sword
is at your neck."
387
00:27:36,386 --> 00:27:37,814
He right.
388
00:27:38,655 --> 00:27:40,562
This law change everything.
389
00:27:41,478 --> 00:27:43,992
Wasn't no more solid ground to stand on.
390
00:27:44,627 --> 00:27:46,621
Not but a year after I escape.
391
00:27:47,430 --> 00:27:48,582
A year.
392
00:27:49,265 --> 00:27:51,014
Felt like longer.
393
00:27:51,735 --> 00:27:55,136
I had a terrible ache
where family should have been.
394
00:27:55,171 --> 00:27:57,905
It felt like I had fallen
into that empty space
395
00:27:57,941 --> 00:27:59,648
my momma's grief clawed at.
396
00:28:00,276 --> 00:28:03,511
I took her name to keep her close
397
00:28:03,546 --> 00:28:07,382
and to become the woman
that swept floors and cooked.
398
00:28:08,918 --> 00:28:10,159
Housework,
399
00:28:10,184 --> 00:28:12,518
or domestic work as they call it
here in the North,
400
00:28:12,789 --> 00:28:15,156
I... I took it any way I could find it.
401
00:28:15,191 --> 00:28:16,824
Can you believe that?
402
00:28:16,860 --> 00:28:18,893
I ran all the way North
403
00:28:18,928 --> 00:28:22,124
to become the very thing
I ran so hard from as a child.
404
00:28:22,504 --> 00:28:24,399
But that's the way of it...
sometimes you got to
405
00:28:24,434 --> 00:28:28,403
circle back on it
to see how different you be.
406
00:28:28,438 --> 00:28:29,972
And it was different.
407
00:28:30,607 --> 00:28:33,935
Knowin' I ain't had no rawhide
on the mantle waitin' for me,
408
00:28:34,511 --> 00:28:36,944
I swept and dusted
409
00:28:36,980 --> 00:28:39,197
with a glad heart and a willin' hand.
410
00:28:39,649 --> 00:28:41,382
It be the first work
411
00:28:41,418 --> 00:28:43,894
where the reward be entirely my own.
412
00:28:44,714 --> 00:28:48,465
Ain't no massa with an open hand
to rob me of it.
413
00:28:49,659 --> 00:28:53,889
But the most important thing
was I had a purpose:
414
00:28:55,298 --> 00:28:58,559
to get my kin out of bondage.
415
00:29:00,069 --> 00:29:01,865
By any means.
416
00:29:04,873 --> 00:29:08,145
Ain't nothin' can't be endured
when you got a purpose.
417
00:29:09,345 --> 00:29:13,132
I'd dust every inch of the North
if it'll help me rescue mine.
418
00:29:15,185 --> 00:29:17,145
And that's what I set out to do.
419
00:29:17,654 --> 00:29:20,123
In every hotel and home
that would have me.
420
00:29:21,761 --> 00:29:23,257
At the time,
421
00:29:23,293 --> 00:29:26,627
I didn't know where to begin
my pursuit to rescue my kin,
422
00:29:26,663 --> 00:29:28,980
but I knew I'd need money
to pull it off.
423
00:29:29,939 --> 00:29:31,441
And I'd need a plan.
424
00:29:33,036 --> 00:29:35,793
My own escape was too impulsive.
425
00:29:36,537 --> 00:29:39,106
It was a risk worth takin'
when it was just my life,
426
00:29:39,142 --> 00:29:41,328
but it wouldn't stand
when it come to others.
427
00:29:44,547 --> 00:29:46,217
I'd need a route back.
428
00:29:47,484 --> 00:29:50,318
And somewhere in the middle
of a most hostile territory
429
00:29:50,353 --> 00:29:54,248
to hole up in while I got word
to my kin somehow.
430
00:29:54,624 --> 00:29:56,881
And all that's just the gettin' there.
431
00:29:57,760 --> 00:29:59,329
'Member how I said earlier?
432
00:30:00,310 --> 00:30:01,650
He will provide?
433
00:30:03,700 --> 00:30:05,008
He will.
434
00:30:06,035 --> 00:30:08,137
But you got to do your part.
435
00:30:17,193 --> 00:30:19,054
So I began a pattern
436
00:30:20,143 --> 00:30:23,011
that I would repeat
for many years after.
437
00:30:25,034 --> 00:30:28,233
Workin', plannin',
438
00:30:28,858 --> 00:30:32,152
and waitin' on the dark months.
439
00:30:32,729 --> 00:30:35,834
December, January, February.
440
00:30:36,366 --> 00:30:38,432
The nights are longer,
441
00:30:38,468 --> 00:30:42,737
and the chill got most huddled
by the fire inside they homes.
442
00:30:43,191 --> 00:30:44,372
That's the time
443
00:30:44,407 --> 00:30:47,183
when you can slip
across state lines unseen.
444
00:30:48,511 --> 00:30:50,463
And I'd acquainted myself
445
00:30:50,947 --> 00:30:54,115
with the black folks workin'
the boatyard along the Delaware.
446
00:30:54,150 --> 00:30:56,384
They kept me in contact
with the eastern shore.
447
00:30:56,419 --> 00:30:58,319
I'd need to know the coming and going
448
00:30:58,354 --> 00:31:00,169
if I was lookin' to come and go.
449
00:31:01,391 --> 00:31:05,760
It was through a bondsman
in that boatyard that I got word
450
00:31:05,973 --> 00:31:08,563
my niece Kessiah and her chillun
451
00:31:08,598 --> 00:31:11,536
were being set to be sold on the
steps of the county courthouse.
452
00:31:15,738 --> 00:31:17,629
I went to Baltimore straightaway
453
00:31:18,274 --> 00:31:20,241
so I could better communicate
with Mr. Bowley.
454
00:31:20,276 --> 00:31:22,009
That was Kessiah's husband.
455
00:31:22,422 --> 00:31:26,213
Bein' a freeman, he could bid
on the family at auction.
456
00:31:28,124 --> 00:31:29,907
The day of the auction came.
457
00:31:31,721 --> 00:31:33,927
I was 100 miles away in Baltimore.
458
00:31:35,412 --> 00:31:36,783
Prayin'.
459
00:31:38,194 --> 00:31:39,175
Waitin'.
460
00:31:40,279 --> 00:31:43,328
The dread I felt that day
was somethin' powerful.
461
00:31:47,303 --> 00:31:49,070
Though that rescue was successful,
462
00:31:49,105 --> 00:31:50,271
and the one after that,
463
00:31:51,174 --> 00:31:53,841
I knew I couldn't sit back anymore
464
00:31:53,876 --> 00:31:55,656
and pull strings from afar.
465
00:31:56,973 --> 00:31:58,662
Too many things could go wrong.
466
00:31:59,916 --> 00:32:01,782
I'd have to go all the way back.
467
00:32:01,818 --> 00:32:03,250
That'd be the best chance.
468
00:32:03,655 --> 00:32:05,419
And yes, I was scared.
469
00:32:06,060 --> 00:32:08,513
But I started with this idea in my head.
470
00:32:10,259 --> 00:32:12,575
There's two things I got a right to:
471
00:32:14,897 --> 00:32:15,832
death...
472
00:32:17,567 --> 00:32:18,525
or liberty.
473
00:32:20,637 --> 00:32:23,711
One or the other I mean to have.
474
00:32:25,541 --> 00:32:29,160
No one will take me back alive.
475
00:32:30,566 --> 00:32:33,561
I shall fight for my liberty.
476
00:32:34,817 --> 00:32:37,559
And when the time come for me to go,
477
00:32:39,255 --> 00:32:41,231
the Lord will let them kill me.
478
00:32:45,728 --> 00:32:49,864
So I set about preparin' to head back
479
00:32:50,566 --> 00:32:52,463
for the first time.
480
00:32:55,131 --> 00:32:56,431
To a place I'd call home
481
00:32:56,456 --> 00:32:59,080
as long as any of my kin
still live there.
482
00:32:59,942 --> 00:33:01,465
My singular aim:
483
00:33:03,287 --> 00:33:05,143
to bring my husband back.
484
00:33:08,191 --> 00:33:11,318
I decided I'd take a boat
down the Chesapeake,
485
00:33:11,354 --> 00:33:14,039
retracin' the route
my niece's family had taken.
486
00:33:14,590 --> 00:33:17,858
I'd holed up 'bout eight miles
from Caroline County,
487
00:33:17,894 --> 00:33:19,255
where I'd lived with John.
488
00:33:20,135 --> 00:33:22,064
Now, I wouldn't go to him.
489
00:33:22,899 --> 00:33:24,965
I decided I'd send word
with someone I could trust
490
00:33:25,001 --> 00:33:27,374
and let him know
I'd come to take him North
491
00:33:27,409 --> 00:33:28,669
and wait for him to come to me.
492
00:33:28,705 --> 00:33:30,404
That was the safest way
I could figure it,
493
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:31,905
and that way ain't failed me since.
494
00:33:41,084 --> 00:33:44,285
There ain't much
that surprises me these days.
495
00:33:46,289 --> 00:33:49,623
But findin' out John
had taken up with another woman
496
00:33:49,659 --> 00:33:51,317
in my absence...
497
00:33:54,290 --> 00:33:55,666
...that was hard.
498
00:33:58,801 --> 00:34:01,469
Hearin' that they was livin'
as man and wife
499
00:34:01,504 --> 00:34:03,459
in the same home we had.
500
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,674
Knowin' I'd come all that way for him,
501
00:34:06,709 --> 00:34:09,107
and he refused to come back with me.
502
00:34:16,212 --> 00:34:17,468
I was hurt.
503
00:34:19,388 --> 00:34:20,764
I was angry.
504
00:34:22,458 --> 00:34:24,043
And jealous.
505
00:34:26,662 --> 00:34:30,131
I wanted to run to
his house... my house...
506
00:34:30,166 --> 00:34:32,225
and make all the trouble I could.
507
00:34:36,359 --> 00:34:39,835
But how foolish it was just for
temper to make mischief.
508
00:34:42,678 --> 00:34:45,554
If he could do without me,
I could do without him.
509
00:34:47,436 --> 00:34:50,084
And just like that,
he dropped from my heart.
510
00:34:50,119 --> 00:34:52,799
But the Lord had a reason
for that betrayal.
511
00:34:53,689 --> 00:34:56,056
He was tryin' to show me somethin'.
512
00:34:56,427 --> 00:34:58,587
That I was thinkin' too small.
513
00:34:59,084 --> 00:35:00,427
While I was waitin' for John,
514
00:35:00,463 --> 00:35:02,129
some others heard that I was there,
515
00:35:02,165 --> 00:35:04,323
and they had come to me
and asked me for my help.
516
00:35:05,001 --> 00:35:08,836
See, I'd only been thinkin'
about me and mine.
517
00:35:08,871 --> 00:35:10,943
And that ain't good enough, not for him.
518
00:35:11,895 --> 00:35:15,947
I had the means
to help those who came to me.
519
00:35:16,912 --> 00:35:19,595
And so help I would.
520
00:35:21,259 --> 00:35:24,275
I led 11 souls to freedom that trip.
521
00:35:25,221 --> 00:35:27,221
Didn't stop in Philadelphia, either.
522
00:35:27,256 --> 00:35:29,356
Took 'em all the way to Canada West.
523
00:35:29,392 --> 00:35:30,858
The North wasn't safe no more.
524
00:35:30,893 --> 00:35:33,360
I couldn't trust my people
with Uncle Sam.
525
00:35:33,396 --> 00:35:35,683
The ground keep shiftin' beneath us.
526
00:35:36,732 --> 00:35:38,648
And so it was from then on.
527
00:35:39,867 --> 00:35:42,770
I wasn't married to no one
but the cause.
528
00:35:44,867 --> 00:35:47,274
I'd make another trip South.
529
00:35:47,310 --> 00:35:48,586
And another one.
530
00:35:49,045 --> 00:35:52,847
Always alertin'
other black folks to my presence
531
00:35:52,882 --> 00:35:54,782
by walkin' the back trails
532
00:35:54,817 --> 00:35:58,352
near the slave quarters, singin'.
533
00:36:52,976 --> 00:36:54,776
After folks heard that,
534
00:36:54,977 --> 00:36:57,738
word of where and when
I was headin' North
535
00:36:57,773 --> 00:36:58,937
would spread quickly.
536
00:36:58,973 --> 00:37:00,932
And I'd keep to it, no matter what.
537
00:37:01,217 --> 00:37:03,150
If you ain't there,
you was gon' be left behind.
538
00:37:03,185 --> 00:37:05,185
And I had my gun with me
so that anybody with me
539
00:37:05,221 --> 00:37:06,525
ain't turn back.
540
00:37:09,992 --> 00:37:13,084
I done led countless souls
in they flight to freedom.
541
00:37:13,829 --> 00:37:16,813
Each one a testament of the path
that he has shown me.
542
00:37:18,501 --> 00:37:21,611
And in his own time,
the giver of all good things
543
00:37:22,138 --> 00:37:23,600
give me what I want.
544
00:37:25,007 --> 00:37:27,875
The kin whose love
had been the only balm
545
00:37:27,910 --> 00:37:31,211
in my days of bondage be free now.
546
00:37:32,755 --> 00:37:36,357
I done got what I wanted.
547
00:37:39,355 --> 00:37:41,309
But maybe it ain't what I need.
548
00:37:45,227 --> 00:37:46,760
I know the work I do,
549
00:37:46,796 --> 00:37:49,893
th-that a lot of us do
in this room is important.
550
00:37:52,935 --> 00:37:55,461
But I'm startin' to believe
it ain't enough.
551
00:38:03,414 --> 00:38:06,882
That first day at Miss Susan's,
552
00:38:06,917 --> 00:38:08,650
takin' a beatin' and keepin' at it,
553
00:38:09,687 --> 00:38:11,862
she had me clean the parlor
554
00:38:12,456 --> 00:38:14,276
'cause her sister was comin' to call.
555
00:38:15,846 --> 00:38:17,484
Miss Emily was her name.
556
00:38:18,782 --> 00:38:21,930
And when she saw me barely standin',
557
00:38:22,359 --> 00:38:26,295
welts all up my arm, neck and face,
558
00:38:26,637 --> 00:38:29,555
somethin' must have broke
in her heart, just a little.
559
00:38:30,407 --> 00:38:31,762
She took pity on me.
560
00:38:32,610 --> 00:38:34,467
Told me what I was doin' wrong.
561
00:38:35,079 --> 00:38:39,195
See, I'd sweep,
then I'd dust right away.
562
00:38:39,837 --> 00:38:41,813
Wasn't givin' no time
for the dust to settle.
563
00:38:42,819 --> 00:38:45,498
So all my hard work was comin' undone.
564
00:38:47,892 --> 00:38:50,628
That's the way
I been feelin' these days.
565
00:38:52,229 --> 00:38:53,828
Can't get no sleep.
566
00:38:55,232 --> 00:38:57,900
And it ain't just my momma's complainin'
567
00:38:57,935 --> 00:39:00,340
about the Canadian cold
every night, either.
568
00:39:04,575 --> 00:39:06,216
When I do sleep...
569
00:39:08,892 --> 00:39:11,996
...there ain't no dreamin'
of flyin' no more.
570
00:39:12,950 --> 00:39:15,747
My feet be firmly planted on the ground.
571
00:39:16,353 --> 00:39:20,722
I'm always in a wilderness
sort of place, with...
572
00:39:20,758 --> 00:39:24,359
all full of,
full of rocks and-and bushes.
573
00:39:26,363 --> 00:39:29,566
And up from behind one of them
rocks, a serpent rises up.
574
00:39:30,334 --> 00:39:32,855
It don't scare me.
I just be standin' there.
575
00:39:33,571 --> 00:39:36,371
And as it rises higher and higher,
576
00:39:36,407 --> 00:39:38,907
its head becomes the head of a old man
577
00:39:38,943 --> 00:39:40,209
with a long white beard.
578
00:39:40,244 --> 00:39:42,678
I ain't got no idea who this man is,
579
00:39:42,713 --> 00:39:45,214
but he be gazin' at me wishful-like,
580
00:39:45,249 --> 00:39:49,084
as if he got somethin'
of grave importance to tell me.
581
00:39:49,119 --> 00:39:53,922
But he just can't,
he can't seem to form the words.
582
00:39:55,319 --> 00:39:58,879
And then two more heads
come out of his body.
583
00:40:00,431 --> 00:40:03,407
And those be the faces of younger men.
584
00:40:04,301 --> 00:40:06,114
I ain't know them, either.
585
00:40:07,264 --> 00:40:10,454
And that old man's eyes
hold steady onto me.
586
00:40:11,709 --> 00:40:14,271
What he want from me? I don't know.
587
00:40:15,679 --> 00:40:17,583
Then, out of nowhere,
588
00:40:18,328 --> 00:40:22,330
a crowd of men come out,
and they rush the serpent,
589
00:40:22,355 --> 00:40:24,388
and they strike down
the two younger heads
590
00:40:24,413 --> 00:40:25,879
and then the old man's.
591
00:40:25,904 --> 00:40:29,353
And still, I-I'm just
standin' there, watchin'.
592
00:40:31,795 --> 00:40:34,963
That old snake man's gaze stay on me.
593
00:40:36,573 --> 00:40:38,742
And it ain't like he lookin' at me.
594
00:40:39,917 --> 00:40:41,471
He lookin' through me.
595
00:40:46,076 --> 00:40:49,083
I ain't know what this was foretellin'.
596
00:40:49,119 --> 00:40:51,264
And I still ain't exactly sure.
597
00:40:52,916 --> 00:40:56,718
But I got some small understandin' of it
598
00:40:56,754 --> 00:40:58,954
after a unexpected meetin'
599
00:40:58,989 --> 00:41:01,063
earlier this year in St. Catherine's.
600
00:41:01,392 --> 00:41:02,991
A visitor come to my door.
601
00:41:03,027 --> 00:41:05,799
And you know what I saw
when I opened it?
602
00:41:06,630 --> 00:41:09,639
I saw an old man
with a long white beard.
603
00:41:10,768 --> 00:41:12,743
And a wishful look in his eye.
604
00:41:15,892 --> 00:41:18,927
Like me, he had been known
by many names.
605
00:41:20,824 --> 00:41:24,425
The most fittin' I could see
be "Captain Brown."
606
00:41:26,517 --> 00:41:29,858
No doubt that you've heard of him
607
00:41:29,893 --> 00:41:32,487
and his exploits
as a friend of the cause.
608
00:41:32,523 --> 00:41:33,989
He's no friend.
609
00:41:34,024 --> 00:41:36,259
- He's a murderer.
- The Captain is the future of this fight.
610
00:41:36,294 --> 00:41:37,477
Mr. Brown and his methods
611
00:41:37,513 --> 00:41:38,505
are too extreme.
612
00:41:38,540 --> 00:41:40,397
And his methods get results.
613
00:41:40,444 --> 00:41:42,082
His methods give all of us a bad name.
614
00:41:42,117 --> 00:41:43,500
Everyone, stop.
615
00:41:44,081 --> 00:41:45,180
We're here
616
00:41:45,215 --> 00:41:46,601
to hear Harriet speak.
617
00:41:47,184 --> 00:41:49,317
So let her speak.
618
00:41:56,378 --> 00:41:57,972
It took me some time
619
00:41:59,696 --> 00:42:02,252
to line up my thoughts on the Captain.
620
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,633
Here was this white man,
standin' before a room
621
00:42:05,669 --> 00:42:07,535
of black folks
who had all been in bondage,
622
00:42:07,571 --> 00:42:10,515
tellin' us that he was ready
to take up the cause
623
00:42:11,508 --> 00:42:14,009
of a race that was not his own.
624
00:42:16,279 --> 00:42:18,493
He ain't know
the cripplin' grip of slavery.
625
00:42:19,416 --> 00:42:23,018
He ain't know the intractable
will of the slaveholders.
626
00:42:23,611 --> 00:42:25,887
And everything I knew told me
no white man would be willin'
627
00:42:25,922 --> 00:42:30,425
to risk his own blood
for black folks' freedom.
628
00:42:32,529 --> 00:42:34,629
But the Captain would,
629
00:42:35,379 --> 00:42:37,327
and he already had.
630
00:42:38,380 --> 00:42:41,336
His son bled with Kansas.
631
00:42:41,541 --> 00:42:44,037
Died in the Pottawatomie massacre.
632
00:42:45,375 --> 00:42:47,565
So every time I thought on it,
633
00:42:48,612 --> 00:42:51,880
everything that confused me about him
634
00:42:51,915 --> 00:42:54,382
built my admiration for him.
635
00:42:54,732 --> 00:42:59,276
I only know two other men
ready to sacrifice their sons:
636
00:43:00,090 --> 00:43:01,790
the prophet Abraham
637
00:43:02,069 --> 00:43:05,226
and the one who done
ordered that sacrifice.
638
00:43:09,297 --> 00:43:10,876
The Captain spoke
639
00:43:12,132 --> 00:43:14,380
of the conspiracy of the slave power.
640
00:43:15,105 --> 00:43:18,139
He shared my disdain for abolitionists
641
00:43:18,175 --> 00:43:20,909
who are unable to take
direct action against it.
642
00:43:21,299 --> 00:43:23,511
That thing I felt...
that dust that wouldn't settle...
643
00:43:23,547 --> 00:43:24,765
he had it, too.
644
00:43:25,424 --> 00:43:27,482
Except he had a name for it.
645
00:43:30,787 --> 00:43:32,077
War.
646
00:43:35,220 --> 00:43:36,591
When he spoke it,
647
00:43:36,626 --> 00:43:39,660
he spoke it quiet, like a... a prayer.
648
00:43:40,947 --> 00:43:42,516
And ain't that it?
649
00:43:44,340 --> 00:43:46,236
Ain't a prayer just a plea?
650
00:43:47,166 --> 00:43:48,736
A hope.
651
00:43:48,931 --> 00:43:50,772
A desire to believe
there's somethin' better
652
00:43:50,807 --> 00:43:52,440
on the other side of it.
653
00:43:52,476 --> 00:43:54,976
And don't we all want better?
654
00:43:58,996 --> 00:44:00,715
War.
655
00:44:03,420 --> 00:44:08,289
The more he said the word to me,
the more sense it made.
656
00:44:11,128 --> 00:44:15,124
Slavery ain't just a sin,
it's a state of war.
657
00:44:15,965 --> 00:44:19,634
Profitin' off the bodies of others.
658
00:44:19,669 --> 00:44:22,137
Rapin' the bodies of others.
659
00:44:22,172 --> 00:44:23,571
Killin' the bodies of others.
660
00:44:23,607 --> 00:44:25,273
Those are all acts of war.
661
00:44:25,308 --> 00:44:27,675
Been that way since the dawn of man.
662
00:44:27,711 --> 00:44:29,711
And we ain't been
callin' it that because
663
00:44:29,746 --> 00:44:32,814
there's a nationwide conspiracy
workin' against us...
664
00:44:32,849 --> 00:44:35,183
a conspiracy, as the Captain called it,
665
00:44:35,218 --> 00:44:37,852
of slaveholders actively at war,
666
00:44:37,888 --> 00:44:40,455
workin' hard to make it seem
the way of things.
667
00:44:40,490 --> 00:44:42,857
They pass it on
to their sons and daughters.
668
00:44:42,893 --> 00:44:44,959
They strengthen it through government.
669
00:44:44,995 --> 00:44:46,995
They justify it through religion,
670
00:44:47,030 --> 00:44:48,229
callin' it Christianity.
671
00:44:48,265 --> 00:44:50,131
That ain't my Christianity.
672
00:44:50,167 --> 00:44:51,533
Callin' it God's will.
673
00:44:51,568 --> 00:44:53,434
That ain't my God.
674
00:44:54,300 --> 00:44:55,837
Down South,
675
00:44:55,872 --> 00:44:58,306
they got men-stealers for ministers,
676
00:44:58,341 --> 00:45:02,010
women-whippers for missionaries,
677
00:45:02,045 --> 00:45:05,146
cradle-plunderers for church members.
678
00:45:05,182 --> 00:45:08,078
It's the most blasphemous of frauds.
679
00:45:09,155 --> 00:45:10,985
Mr. Douglass said that last part,
680
00:45:11,021 --> 00:45:13,471
and it's somethin' we all agree on.
681
00:45:14,724 --> 00:45:17,959
The Captain is steadfast
in his conviction.
682
00:45:17,994 --> 00:45:20,931
And I have no doubt
he's willin' to die for it.
683
00:45:21,965 --> 00:45:24,972
I don't intend to die for the cause.
684
00:45:26,303 --> 00:45:27,529
I will.
685
00:45:29,105 --> 00:45:31,564
To give up oneself... that be vital.
686
00:45:32,375 --> 00:45:35,577
It's the act of every saint and martyr.
687
00:45:35,612 --> 00:45:37,278
John the Baptist.
688
00:45:37,314 --> 00:45:38,781
Joan of Arc.
689
00:45:40,016 --> 00:45:42,183
But Minty of Dorchester
690
00:45:42,557 --> 00:45:45,420
just don't have the same
ring to it, does it?
691
00:45:48,225 --> 00:45:53,394
I want to live a long and full life.
692
00:45:53,430 --> 00:45:56,805
I'm tired of livin'
under the threat of death.
693
00:45:57,734 --> 00:46:00,702
Violence with no cause is brutality.
694
00:46:00,737 --> 00:46:03,366
That's the way of the slaveholder.
695
00:46:03,974 --> 00:46:06,808
But beatin' back against
those tryin' to kill you...
696
00:46:06,843 --> 00:46:08,543
that's hope.
697
00:46:08,578 --> 00:46:10,411
That's prayer.
698
00:46:10,447 --> 00:46:15,283
That's believin' you will live
a long and full life.
699
00:46:42,846 --> 00:46:44,004
War.
700
00:46:48,420 --> 00:46:49,669
Trust me,
701
00:46:51,253 --> 00:46:53,100
I don't want to go there either.
702
00:46:55,164 --> 00:46:57,225
But it's where we be.
703
00:47:04,208 --> 00:47:06,074
In the last year, by my estimation,
704
00:47:06,110 --> 00:47:09,602
I done helped over 50 souls
find their way North.
705
00:47:10,481 --> 00:47:12,759
I know I'm doin' the Lord's work.
706
00:47:13,384 --> 00:47:15,422
I know we is changin' lives.
707
00:47:16,653 --> 00:47:19,064
But I also know
the world ain't changin'.
708
00:47:20,090 --> 00:47:21,470
I believe it's got to.
709
00:47:22,526 --> 00:47:25,391
We all here 'cause
we believe it's got to.
710
00:47:26,663 --> 00:47:27,976
But we...
711
00:47:28,665 --> 00:47:32,067
all here... talkin' to each other.
712
00:47:32,102 --> 00:47:34,889
Right now we ain't out there
changin' it, are we?
713
00:47:35,572 --> 00:47:37,873
We here, in Philadelphia,
714
00:47:37,908 --> 00:47:40,609
this shinin' city
that I heard of from afar,
715
00:47:40,644 --> 00:47:43,112
that I thought might be heaven
when I arrived,
716
00:47:44,715 --> 00:47:47,205
where freedom rings like that bell.
717
00:47:47,951 --> 00:47:49,985
But how many white folks rioted
718
00:47:50,020 --> 00:47:52,988
when the fugitive slaves
moved too close?
719
00:47:53,408 --> 00:47:55,624
How many Yankees we pass
in the streets every day
720
00:47:55,659 --> 00:47:57,259
in their suit jackets and petticoats
721
00:47:57,294 --> 00:47:59,661
made of the cotton
that done bloodied the hands
722
00:47:59,696 --> 00:48:01,383
of half this country?
723
00:48:02,466 --> 00:48:05,696
We call ourselves abolitionists.
724
00:48:06,552 --> 00:48:08,632
But we ain't abolished nothin'.
725
00:48:10,082 --> 00:48:13,608
So much of our breath be spent
arguin' over methods
726
00:48:13,644 --> 00:48:15,945
that it overshadows the purpose.
727
00:48:17,097 --> 00:48:19,047
We speak of the cause with such fervor,
728
00:48:19,083 --> 00:48:21,249
yet we see no effect.
729
00:48:21,285 --> 00:48:23,885
A passionate debate
about action is important,
730
00:48:23,921 --> 00:48:27,422
but it should never be mistaken
for action itself.
731
00:48:27,797 --> 00:48:30,392
As we fight amongst ourselves
on how to defeat the enemy,
732
00:48:30,427 --> 00:48:33,328
the enemy takes more ground
in this war every day,
733
00:48:33,363 --> 00:48:36,164
from ballot boxes to breedin' farms,
734
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:39,000
marchin' in lockstep against us,
while we bicker
735
00:48:39,036 --> 00:48:42,070
over what song our fife
and bugle should play.
736
00:48:42,106 --> 00:48:44,272
We make enemies of ourselves
737
00:48:44,308 --> 00:48:47,909
over of a deep fear of the real enemy,
738
00:48:47,945 --> 00:48:51,980
a fear borne of
the daunting odds of us winning.
739
00:48:52,219 --> 00:48:54,049
Yeah, winning this war is tough.
740
00:48:54,084 --> 00:48:57,052
Tough, but not impossible.
741
00:48:57,087 --> 00:48:59,754
I've witnessed firsthand the heroism
742
00:48:59,790 --> 00:49:01,857
and feats accomplished
743
00:49:01,892 --> 00:49:05,227
by our network of abolitionists
in name of the cause.
744
00:49:05,455 --> 00:49:08,029
Our numbers... our numbers have grown,
745
00:49:08,065 --> 00:49:11,166
as has the power of the Underground.
746
00:49:11,201 --> 00:49:12,767
But we got a ways to go
747
00:49:12,803 --> 00:49:15,615
to meet what is required in this fight.
748
00:49:16,815 --> 00:49:19,574
The work everybody in this room
been doin' is good.
749
00:49:19,610 --> 00:49:20,910
It's important.
750
00:49:22,412 --> 00:49:23,784
But it ain't enough.
751
00:49:24,753 --> 00:49:25,814
You may think it is.
752
00:49:25,849 --> 00:49:28,192
You can think it is, 'cause you free.
753
00:49:29,353 --> 00:49:31,017
Nothin' be expected of you.
754
00:49:31,855 --> 00:49:34,608
And nothin' is to be gained
for you and yours
755
00:49:35,226 --> 00:49:37,592
from the abolition
of this wretched institution.
756
00:49:37,628 --> 00:49:40,162
This line of thinkin', though
it lightens your burdens,
757
00:49:40,197 --> 00:49:41,763
it can be akin to apathy.
758
00:49:41,798 --> 00:49:44,132
I've felt it myself,
bein' free in the North.
759
00:49:44,168 --> 00:49:46,535
I can be guilty of similar thoughts.
760
00:49:46,570 --> 00:49:49,871
Them runs down South can be hard
on the body and the spirit,
761
00:49:49,907 --> 00:49:51,606
and I ain't gettin' no younger.
762
00:49:51,642 --> 00:49:54,042
Neither are my parents,
livin' with me now,
763
00:49:54,077 --> 00:49:56,411
needin' me to provide for them.
764
00:49:58,282 --> 00:50:00,215
All I done?
765
00:50:00,250 --> 00:50:01,936
I believe it be enough.
766
00:50:02,831 --> 00:50:05,360
I can believe it 'cause I'm free.
767
00:50:06,690 --> 00:50:08,864
But Captain John's visit
768
00:50:09,293 --> 00:50:12,661
reminded me of somethin' I learned
769
00:50:12,696 --> 00:50:15,351
when I was that
troublemakin' little girl.
770
00:50:16,633 --> 00:50:20,400
There ain't no negotiations on freedom.
771
00:50:20,804 --> 00:50:22,984
Big or small.
772
00:50:23,534 --> 00:50:25,734
There ain't no compromises
773
00:50:25,909 --> 00:50:28,009
or no half measures that mean anything,
774
00:50:28,045 --> 00:50:30,378
not to those in bondage.
775
00:50:30,414 --> 00:50:32,283
And not for any of us either.
776
00:50:32,950 --> 00:50:35,817
'Cause a country built on bodies
777
00:50:35,852 --> 00:50:38,535
will always need more for the slaughter.
778
00:50:39,189 --> 00:50:42,624
As long as slavery stands,
ain't none of us,
779
00:50:42,659 --> 00:50:47,028
no matter hue, man or woman, be free.
780
00:50:47,064 --> 00:50:50,332
And if you refuse to see
the chains that we all wearin',
781
00:50:50,367 --> 00:50:52,234
then you livin' in a dream,
782
00:50:52,269 --> 00:50:55,447
and the rest of us are sufferin'
in the real world 'cause of it.
783
00:50:57,488 --> 00:50:59,874
I'm sure you all came here
784
00:50:59,910 --> 00:51:02,847
to hear the horrifyin' stories
of brutality
785
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:06,080
and the triumphant tales of courage.
786
00:51:07,082 --> 00:51:08,783
When Mr. Still asked me to speak,
787
00:51:08,819 --> 00:51:12,220
he told me all I needed to do
was tell my story.
788
00:51:14,091 --> 00:51:16,279
But my story ain't over.
789
00:51:17,494 --> 00:51:18,847
And it ain't my own.
790
00:51:20,864 --> 00:51:22,273
Our action,
791
00:51:23,267 --> 00:51:25,103
and our inactions,
792
00:51:26,249 --> 00:51:29,369
changes the course of things... all us.
793
00:51:30,874 --> 00:51:32,328
Me?
794
00:51:33,744 --> 00:51:36,151
I aim to continue to act.
795
00:51:38,781 --> 00:51:42,183
And it seem to me Captain Brown's path
796
00:51:42,208 --> 00:51:45,109
be the only way left for me to travel.
797
00:51:47,057 --> 00:51:49,624
I done talked a lot about
what my momma taught me,
798
00:51:49,660 --> 00:51:52,671
but my daddy taught me
a lot of lessons, too.
799
00:51:53,392 --> 00:51:55,563
He showed me every
which way to fell a tree,
800
00:51:55,599 --> 00:51:58,536
dependin' on its lineage or condition.
801
00:51:59,312 --> 00:52:02,370
He taught me there ain't no tree
that could best a axe
802
00:52:02,406 --> 00:52:06,908
in the right hands,
no matter how strong its trunk,
803
00:52:06,943 --> 00:52:09,678
no matter how long it's been there.
804
00:52:09,713 --> 00:52:12,823
And he taught me
about plantin' seeds, too.
805
00:52:13,917 --> 00:52:18,520
An acorn, hard as a rock when it fell,
806
00:52:18,555 --> 00:52:22,223
would be swallowed up
by the ground, cracked open,
807
00:52:22,259 --> 00:52:25,960
in what may seem like
a violent act of destruction.
808
00:52:25,996 --> 00:52:27,951
But that be growth, too.
809
00:52:29,700 --> 00:52:34,369
The acorn must come completely undone
810
00:52:34,656 --> 00:52:38,006
in order for new life to emerge.
811
00:52:39,795 --> 00:52:40,784
And I admit,
812
00:52:41,912 --> 00:52:44,479
as I stand here
at the start of a new path,
813
00:52:44,514 --> 00:52:45,897
lookin' forward...
814
00:52:46,917 --> 00:52:49,317
I'm feelin' somethin' like
what my brothers must have felt
815
00:52:49,353 --> 00:52:51,111
all them years ago.
816
00:52:52,356 --> 00:52:56,825
And I'm prayin' to him
for that wildfire in me
817
00:52:56,860 --> 00:52:59,015
to burn away all doubt.
818
00:53:00,323 --> 00:53:03,331
And if Captain Brown's prayer
ain't yours...
819
00:53:06,399 --> 00:53:07,769
...if you don't have it in you
820
00:53:07,804 --> 00:53:10,375
to take up arms against the injustice,
821
00:53:11,508 --> 00:53:14,143
then you got to pray another prayer.
822
00:53:15,304 --> 00:53:17,551
And you got to walk in it
with conviction.
823
00:53:18,815 --> 00:53:21,871
He will provide,
but you got to do your part.
824
00:53:22,919 --> 00:53:27,357
You got to find what it means
for you to be a soldier.
825
00:53:28,225 --> 00:53:30,925
Beat back those that are tryin' to kill
826
00:53:30,961 --> 00:53:32,761
everything good and right in the world,
827
00:53:32,796 --> 00:53:35,336
and call it makin' it great again.
828
00:53:35,999 --> 00:53:39,381
We can't afford to be just
citizens in a time of war.
829
00:53:39,903 --> 00:53:41,421
That'd be surrender.
830
00:53:42,205 --> 00:53:46,181
That'd be givin' up our future
and our souls.
831
00:53:47,136 --> 00:53:50,656
Ain't nobody get to
sit this one out, you hear me?
832
00:53:51,381 --> 00:53:58,580
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