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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 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 Synced & corrected by -robtor- www.addic7ed.com 62423

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