(Multicom jingle)
(dramatic music)
(horses neighing)
- [Girl] Harriet!
Don't let them take me.
(woman screams)
- You're fired.
Get off of my plantation and stay off.
Your price, sir.
- Nah, no price at all.
(triumphant music)
- But if I get myself hired out, I could go to Bucktown,
maybe I'll make enough money
one day to buy us all our freedom.
- You work my fields five days a week
and on Saturdays and Sundays you're free
to earn money on your own.
- I been watchin' you off and on.
You know that don't you?
- Look here mister, I ain't no house maid
and I sure ain't nothing for no good time.
(crowd cheers)
- [Preacher] Now, you is married.
(crowd cheers)
(somber music)
- All my freedom money's gone.
- What's wrong with a man borrowing from his wife?
- Not borrowed, John, stole.
You stole my freedom to save your own.
I done made up my mind, I'm gonna run off tonight.
You got come go with me.
- Somebody's gotta stay with mom and dad.
- Then I'm going, Benjie.
After I get myself settled up North,
I'll come back and get y'all hear?
- But thee will find an underground railway station in Dover
and a ticket to Philadelphia.
- You mean they's gonna put me on a train
that runs under the ground?
- [Rodham] It's not a real train.
The underground railway is people along the way
with help to clothe thee and feed thee and rest at night
and show thee the right way to Philadelphia.
(tranquil music)
(people chattering)
- Said if he could just get north for one day,
It'd be all right.
He'd be just fine.
(sorrowful music)
- The death of that old man, the gray look in his eye
and the voice of that old woman
left me with a spirit of sadness.
And all I could think of and long for was to see my momma
and daddy with me.
To see them released from the evil of bondage.
I had to return to to bring 'em back.
♪ The road's been rocky ♪
Hello.
♪ The road's been rough ♪
♪ But I'm bound to see you one more time ♪
♪ I said the road's been rocky ♪
♪ The road's been rough ♪
♪ But I'm going to see you one more time ♪
(dog barking)
(door creaking)
(dog barking)
(coyote howling)
- John?
(door rapping)
John Tubman.
(footsteps stomping)
- Hat.
Where you come from?
I thought--
- You thought I was dead, John?
- Nah, I just, I, what is you doing here, Hat?
- I come after my folks.
You know where they at, John?
- What you doing with the rifle, Hat?
- I come to fetch my folks.
You know where they at, John?
Tell me.
- I don't know.
Doc Thompson sent 'em out somewhere.
Don't nobody know.
- And my brother?
- Benjie's supposed to be with your mom and daddy
and Robert and Elvina they got hired out up country.
- But, where, John?
Where?
- I don't know nothin', Harriet.
Now, you better get on out of here before somebody sees you.
- [Harriet] Please.
- You can't go in there.
(dramatic music)
I asked you to stay.
Harriet, Harriet!
(somber music)
(water running)
- Lord, I'm cold, I'm cold, Lord.
Lord, I know I haven't kept your word.
I know Lord, that you remember the time,
a long time ago when I prayed to you for a man to die.
Lord Jesus, I have forgotten you many times.
Lord, many, many times.
Forgive me, Lord, forgive me.
Take me, take my will and make it strong.
Cover me from the coldness of the devil's evil ways.
Make me to serve you, Lord and you alone.
Lord, show me where to go.
Show me where the power and the force is, Lord.
Show me where the spirit waits.
Show me Lord, where the spirit waits, show me.
(somber music)
(water splashing)
Lord, I'm the river.
It's full of blood.
There's no cold in my heart.
Nothing can harm me now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus.
I love you.
I love you, Lord Jesus.
I will praise your name forever, forever.
I love...
Yes, Lord.
The prophecy?
Oh, yes, Lord Jesus.
I will lead my people.
I will lead my people out of bondage.
I will lead my people out of bondage, Lord.
I will lead them out of bondage.
I will lead my people out of bondage, Lord.
I will lead.
- [Narrator] The call has been heard
and they come by ones.
They come by twos.
They come by threes.
They keep coming.
(people chattering)
- Take it easy, now.
Now, we're gonna go into the woods,
to the river passed Bucktown.
And we walk as fast as we can along the river bank.
Now, don't nobody talk but me.
And don't be scared 'cause we gonna make it outta here.
Let's go, come on.
- [Narrator] Plain, at last it was.
One hazardous journey back into midnight
for the salvation of one kind of kin,
only to discover another kind.
The momentous pattern had at last been formed.
The waiting, rebellions, restlessness
and the strengthening labor all intended from the beginning.
A divine voice with an unseen face offering instructions
as to why these journeys must go on.
Offering reason as to why Harriet Ross Tubman
had been given life.
Given life to steal the slaves away.
To journey time and time again, month after month,
mission after mission, year after year.
(hopeful music)
- We's here, bless God, we's here.
- [Woman] We're home.
- [Harriet] We's here.
(group cheering)
We's here.
(group laughing)
Come on, we's here.
(group chattering)
(bell ringing)
We is here this afternoon to put to shame
the Fugitive Slave Law.
- [Crowd] Yes!
- This law what says that escaped slaves found in Boston,
Philadelphia or anywhere is the right
and property of the slave holder
and can be carted back like bondage.
This is an unchristian law.
(crowd yells)
- [Man] Amen.
- It is against the will of God.
(crowd yells)
I hear that these politicians that are in Washington,
they are saying that the escaped slaves wants to go back
to their slave masters.
(crowd laughs)
Well, now anybody got any kind of sense
knows that them politicians is lyin' like dogs.
(crowd cheers)
- [Man] What do you think we should do?
- You know anybody who wants to be a slave?
- [Crowd] No.
- You show me a slave like that
and I'll show you a crazy man.
(crowd laughs)
(crowd applauds)
So, like Senator Suth, Mr. William Still,
Brother Garrett Smith.
(crowd applauds)
Done told us this afternoon, your Congress
and your President Fillmore by giving us
this Fugitive Slave Law sold the country
and they sold to the devil.
(crowd yells)
Anybody here got any questions
about what I'm saying here this afternoon?
- What's fair compensation for a slave holder
who's lost his slave?
- [Man] Here, here.
(crowd jeering)
- The state prison, sir.
(crowd yelling) (crowd applauding)
- I say go back to Africa.
(crowd yelling)
- Let him be.
Let him be.
Don't you set down.
You stand right where you is, mister.
I got something to say to you.
(crowd yells)
Africa?
Well, I would say it's much too late for that.
Your shackles and your chains done rooted us here too deep.
So deep we is more rooted than your cousins
what sailed the seas and slaughtered the injuns away.
I wanna ask you somethin'.
Who is you think mostly built the South.
(crowd yelling)
That's right, us'n.
It was our hands which mostly pushed back the trees
and made the things to use and grow.
Our hands.
Negros hands.
- [Crowd] Yeah.
- That's right.
I'm gonna tell you somethin', mister.
My peoples gave to this land.
Fought for this land.
Belongs to this land, I say.
Love this land.
And it's on this land where we's gonna be free.
(crowd cheers) (crowd applauds)
- [Crowd] Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses,
Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses
- [Narrator] There was the woman they called Moses.
At the height of her prowess.
- [Crowd] Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses,
Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses.
- [Narrator] Crowned she was.
And yet she had not found her close lost ones.
Dearly beloved ones.
- [Crowd] Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses,
Moses, Moses, Moses.
(gentle music)
- [Driver] Whoa.
- Gentlemen, Mr. Coleman is here
and I think we should get started again.
Of course, ole Robbie over here loves bourbon
more than he loves a long-legged pretty gal.
(men laughing)
Let's put the glasses away gentlemen
and get down to work again.
Mr. Coleman, you can sit at this corner next to me.
- Thank you.
- Tom.
Mr. Coleman, the men you see at this table
represent the richest planters on the Southeastern Coast.
It is we who are suffering the most
from all this Negro who calls herself Moses is doing.
- Here, here. - That's right.
- [Planter] Already, she done stole 300 of our slaves,
our property.
The situation's becoming grave.
And that's why we decided to hire you
to track this Negro down.
- And after I track her down, then what?
- Let us put it to you this way.
This gal's a thief plan and simple.
When you catch a thief, you hang that thief
or you burn that thief at the stake.
- Gentlemen, I run a respectable detective agency.
Now, I have the reputation for being the best at what I do
because I always catch my man.
I've never set out to kill anyone.
What you men want is a bounty hunter.
- Now, Mr. Coleman, we know of your reputation
and we respect you, but you don't know this gal.
At first she started killing off patrollers
and now she done took to butchering poor farmers
and their families just like that man Turner used to do.
I tell you, sir, this gal is totally incorrigible.
- I'm sorry, gentlemen,
I am not in the market for killing people.
- [Planter] Not even for $30,000, Mr. Coleman?
- [Andrew] Tell me more about this gal.
- One thing we know that every time
she's in been in this county,
she's tried to make contact with her folks.
But Doc Thompson who holds them,
hired them out to a plantation south of here.
- You get her momma and daddy
back on Doc Thompson's plantation,
then I'll catch your gal for you.
- Now once runaway slaves reach the state of Delaware,
they must follow this trail away from the main centers
of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York,
'cause these areas are swarming with Southern agents.
Here, they will circle back to the city of Rochester
where there are friends who will aid them
until they are ready to take this newly charted course
into St. Catherines, Canada.
Now all this means is that we will have to set up
new stations and decoys throughout this entire stretch,
which means that it'll cost money.
Ladies and gentlemen, need I say more.
Good, you know what needs to be done.
So I suggest that we start in raising funds immediately.
Thank you.
(group talking)
- You hear anything?
- Yes, your folks are back at the Thompson plantation.
I knew you'd be pleased.
And I know you been waiting for a long time for this moment.
But, Harriet, I wish you wouldn't go.
- You want me to call my journey off?
- At least for a few months.
I've got to figure that they brought your folks back
in order to lure you into a trap.
- Oh, I can't worry about no traps, Mr. Still.
I got to get my folks out of there
before they send 'em away again.
- It says here in this report that the planters
have hired a special detective to hunt you down
and that the reward for your capture
has jumped to $40,000 dead or alive.
- Dead or alive.
- [William] Yes, they're now claiming
that you've been murdering men, women and children.
- That's not true.
You know that.
- Of course, I know it, Harriet.
But I'm not the one that's after you.
Well?
- I can't wait no more.
- Harriet, you don't seem to understand.
They're not merely trying to capture you now,
they're after your life.
- Mr. Still, I can't stop what I'm doin'
'cause they's lyin' on me.
My life is with God.
They's is with the devil.
Now with God on my side, I got to go where He calls me,
no matter what evil is tryin' to stop me.
- This is what he looks like.
His name is Andrew Coleman.
He's a Northern by birth but he's lived in the South
for the past 10 years.
Probably the best detective in the country.
Clever, deceptive, has great sense powers
and he's never gone after anyone
he didn't eventually catch up with.
And I have no doubts whatsoever, Harriet,
that he'll be waiting for you
with many armed men at the Thompson plantation.
Harriet, please listen to me.
(picture banging)
Harriet, please.
Hat!
(poker sizzles)
- Doc Thompson.
Please, you must stay here.
I hope you don't take this personal.
It's merely a job.
Do you see Charley there?
He's the emotional one.
He's been working for me for five years now.
Personally, I don't like him, I never have.
You see Charley just loves it when things get messy
so he can put that hot poker to boys like Ben here.
Like I said before, I don't like him for his crude ways,
but I tolerate him because he gets results.
However, I don't think he's gonna get anything from old Ben.
No sir.
Old Ben here would rather die than tell on is little girl.
So Charley, you get me his woman.
- Hey, Andy.
We know where she is now.
Hold up at old Crawford's place in Cambridge.
- You sure?
- Me and Tolson spotted her going in there.
- Let's move.
(door slamming)
Come on men.
To Cambridge, let's ride.
Ha!
(horses neighing)
- You can go now, Ben.
- Yes, sir.
- [Doc] Ben.
- [Ben] Yes, sir.
- I uh, um...
Nothing.
- [Ben] Yes, sir.
- [Rider] Ha!
(dogs barking)
- Benjie!
God bless you.
Elvina, you pretty little thing.
God bless, you're already in the family way.
- I'm so glad you come for us, Harriet.
So glad.
- We's going to Canada, honey
and everything gonna be all right.
Look here, where's Momma and Daddy?
Didn't they get my message to come join us here?
- Yeah, but I don't think they's comin', Hat.
- They's coming, all right.
If I have to drag 'em every step of the way,
they's comin'.
Listen, you all tell the other runaways
to wait right here til I get back.
You here me?
I'm gonna be get 'em.
Gonna get 'em.
- [Rider] It's a trick, it's a trick.
They had little gal all dressed up
to look like that Thompson wench.
Probably headed for Doc Thompson's.
Come on, let's go.
(horses neighing)
- Harriet?
- Momma.
- Oh, my child, my child.
- Daddy.
- [Harriet] What's wrong, Daddy?
- [Ben] What you doing here now?
I thought you was up to Cambridge.
- Oh, daddy that some folks
they got dressed up to look like me from the underground.
You mean Coleman and his men went up there?
- Yeah, but they gonna be comin' back.
So now, you go on and you get outta here, you hear me?
Go on, get.
- I'm goin', Daddy, I'm goin'.
I got Elvina, Robert and Benjie
waitin' for us in the praise grove.
So you and Momma get your things together right quick.
You're goin' with me.
- No, we can't go with you, Harriet.
- Why can't we, Ben?
- 'Cause we too old to run now.
She'd get caught because of us.
- Ain't nobody too old to be free, Daddy.
- Now, we done outlasted six masters on this place.
You go on and you take the children and go.
We'll be all right.
- You and Momma got 10 minutes
to meet me in the praise grove, Daddy.
Else, I'm gonna light up these quarters with gunfire
and I'm ready to die.
Tonight, right here.
I ain't goin' without you.
(door slamming)
(hopeful music)
- I told you they wasn't comin', Hat.
- We'll wait, Robert, just be quiet.
(bird chirping)
(horse neighing)
Let's go, go.
Come on.
All right, now y'all line up in one skinny line.
Hold on to each others hands and skirts and jackets.
It's cold, it's gonna be long and hard,
but God will help us through it.
Let's go now.
(hopeful music)
(ominous music)
(dramatic music)
Come on, come on.
Come on.
- Hoo-ah.
(horse blustering)
Two days ahead of us.
- This old gal sure put a fool one over on us.
- Don't ever let me hear you talk that way again, Charley.
She will be back.
I know a bit more about her now.
I know all of her tricks and all of her trails.
Next time she comes, I'll be waiting.
- Come on.
Now, you see that there pole down there,
what says Chester, Pennsylvania?
That's where you get on the train
and that train is gonna take you
to a town called Rochester, New York.
That's where I'll catch up with you.
Then we get on another train
what's gonna take us right straight into Canada.
Now, here's your tickets and your passes.
And ain't nobody gonna bother you, hear?
- Why ain't you going with us?
- Now, Daddy, that just won't be safe.
My face is too familiar to bounty hunters.
And I sure don't want y'all to be nabbed on account of me.
Just remember what I said.
When the train come, you got to flag it down,
else it's not gonna stop.
And you just step on right fancy like.
Sit down right nice, like you been doing every Sunday.
And Momma, I want you two to behave yourself.
You understand me?
You hear me, Momma.
I want you to put on the dog
and act like you're real big time.
Understand?
- Now, it ain't no call for you to talk to us
like we's children.
We knows how to act.
Now come on, y'all.
I's in charge of this--
- Underground railroad, Momma.
- I's in charge of this underground railroad.
So come on y'all, follow me.
- That's right.
(somber music)
See y'all when we get there.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] After a year in Canada,
Harriet with the aid of a kindly White senator
acquired freeman's papers for herself and parents.
Bought a home in Alburn, New York for settlement,
rest, peace and a recess from her missions for awhile.
But now the calling swells up inside once again.
What to do with momma and daddy's fears?
- Hat?
Me and your daddy's been seein' it
in your eyes for weeks now.
And we's been hearin' you prayin' in your room every night.
But we's been scared to tell you the word.
- What word, Momma?
- We can't let you run off down there no more.
- Momma and Daddy the last thing I ever wanna do
is to cause you no worry.
But it ain't up to any of us.
It's the callin'.
The callin'.
- Harriet.
You don't walk away when we talkin' to you.
- I'm sorry, Daddy.
But you must forgive me if I say
there's no force anywhere but God
that would keep from goin' to make this journey.
Can I go now?
- Go ahead.
- Andy, got some good news for you, Andy.
- What's that?
- At long last, we got Moses back in Dorchester County.
- Where'd you get this information?
- This here telegraph letter from Broadas.
- I want you to check around.
See if you can find out
what plantation she's got in mind.
- I sure will, now.
(soft classical music)
♪ Steal away ♪
♪ Steal away to Jesus ♪
♪ Steal away ♪
Come on, brother.
Me and this gonna take you to the promised land.
Come on.
♪ Steal away, Lord ♪
Hey, come on, sister.
- Oh, thank the Lord, thank the Lord.
- I figure this is gonna be the night.
Why Christmas eve?
Why this night of all nights?
- Nigger like that, just pick a night.
- That's your trouble, Charley,
you underestimate this little girl.
Will Hughlett is the richest plantation owner around here.
- Sure is, he's got that big Christmas party
going on tonight, he has 'em every year.
- That's it, that's it.
Come on.
(soft classical music)
Get down in the quarters.
Turn them upside down.
- [Charley] All right.
(bird chirping)
(Harriet whispering)
(dogs barking)
- Now, right now, okay.
All right, everybody hold hands.
Hold hands.
You're the Tazwell family?
Okay, you follow behind me.
All right, when my hand goes up like this, that means stop.
If I go like this, it means follow me, all right?
Let's hurry.
(bird chirping)
- On Christmas Eve, Mr. Coleman?
That's preposterous.
None of my slaves would dare runaway,
on this night of all nights.
'Cause they know that I've got a bunch of Christmas presents
waitin' in there for 'em in the morning.
- Seven of 'em, gone.
- I don't believe it.
- We got names.
- Christmas, huh?
Roberson family.
Josiah Bailey.
- Josiah Bailey, give...
Oh, no.
Oh.
That boy is the most prized buck in this county.
I can't lose him, Coleman.
Now, I don't care what happens to the rest of 'em
or how much it costs me, you get that boy back.
- How much is he worth to you, Will?
- $50,000.
- Put it in writing.
- Hold it, get down on the ground and stay there.
(bird chirping)
- It's me, it's me, Shadrack.
- You better tell me quick what you're doin' followin' us.
- I figured I could run with you.
- What you doing on the Hughlett plantation?
You Thompson's slave.
- He hired me over to Hughlett.
- We'll see.
March.
Okay, get up now.
- Tazwell, Tazwell you tell her.
Ain't I hired over to Hughlett?
- He is.
- Ain't nothin' left for us to do but take him then.
But you gotta follow my orders, you hear?
- Sure, sure, Moses.
- Since we done lost so much time, we better move
and move fast til we get to the Nanticoke River.
Come on, let's go.
(dramatic music)
- Charley, you take your men.
Get over to the Nanticoke.
We'll cover the Choptank.
- [Charley] Okay, let's go.
- Ha, come on, come on.
(anxious music)
(dramatic music)
- I tell you children, I think this is the one here.
It's gonna be the one for tonight.
We're gonna camp here tonight.
Spread out, yes.
- [Andrew] You men, get on the other side of the river.
The rest of you follow me.
(dramatic music)
(troubling music)
- Wake up.
Go on, get up honey.
Get up, come on, wake up Bailey.
You too, Shadrack.
Get up, gettin' up time.
- I'm hungry, Momma.
- Can we eat somethin'?
- Five minutes, five minutes for eatin'.
Five minutes, no more.
- This camp's a trick.
She wants us to think they've been here.
Keep us on the wrong trail.
On the Nanticoke for sure.
Get back to Coleman.
(foreboding music)
- [Andrew] Let's mount up.
Hunt her trail.
(men yelling)
(dramatic music)
Come on.
Come on, ha!
- Come on, move.
All right, everybody hide behind a bale of hay.
Get in there.
(Harriet whistling)
(chickens clucking)
- Moses, what a pleasant sound to here thy whistle call.
- Oh, it's a good sight to see you, Mrs. Jenkins.
Where's Mr. Jenkins?
- He went up country for a few days.
And would thee believe it, on the first night he was away
the farm was invaded by those heathen bounty hunters?
- So clear now, I hopes.
- Yes, quite.
Here are the keys for the basement.
- Yessum, all right now.
Y'all come on out.
Come on folks, come on out.
- I know thy passengers must be famished by now.
I'll rush to prepare them a warm meal.
- Thank you, ma'am.
Okay, Joe and Shadrack move them bales of hay.
Come on now.
Okay, get on down inside.
(she sneezes)
(man coughs)
- What's behind this door?
- Escape tunnel.
- What do we do now, Moses?
- Well, we waits a while to bring us something to eat
and we change clothes.
Then we waits for her to tell us if it's safe or not,
then we just move on.
- You got the keys to this tunnel?
(keys jingling)
- One time there was a old slave and they called him Bumpy.
Bumpy had a master who was gettin' dressed
to fight a gun duel.
And he asked Bumpy, he says, Bumpy how do I look?
Bumpy, said mighty noble, master.
Just like a lion.
Why Bumpy, where did you ever see a lion?
He said down yonder in the field, master.
He says, Bumpy, you is as much fool as you is old,
that's a jackass.
Bumpy scratch his head.
Well, I'll be a holy cow, Lord.
I could of swore you looked just like him.
(group laughs)
- Now, y'all know he lyin' don't you?
Go on, eat.
(melancholy music)
- You's able to read, Bernette?
- Uh-huh.
My mistress showed me when I was a little girl.
(foreboding music) (rattles shaking)
I ain't got no funny plantation stories to tell.
All I can think about was the nights
he would bust into my cabin to push his dirty old,
oily body all over mine.
How many times I wished he was dead.
I used to cry.
Not because of what he did to me,
but because I didn't know how to hate him enough.
- I know.
I used to be that way myself.
Keeps you going all right,
but where does it take you to?
Nothing (chuckles), they wins anyway.
Is that why Hughlett wouldn't let you and Joe get married?
- Part of it, I guess.
- Then what was it, Joe?
- Go on, Joe.
Tell her.
- He, he'd take me to other plantations,
hired me out for a price to other masters
to make babies with their bondwomen.
- Why don't you just tell it like it is, Josiah?
You was a buck.
- That's not for you to say, Shadrack.
(foreboding music)
- Where's that woman?
Why hasn't she brought them clothes yet?
- I think he's right.
Everybody stay where they is.
I'll go up and see.
- Stay back, Moses.
There're watchers on the hill.
(cow mooing)
- Everybody be quiet.
There's men out there.
- Then you gotta take us out that tunnel door.
- You know they look in back as well as front.
- [Leah] No.
- Now give 'em to me.
Give me them keys.
Give me the keys woman.
Ah, stop fighting me woman!
- All right, we hear you down there.
Y'all better come on up, hear?
(gun firing)
(shots firing)
(women scream)
That bitch.
(gun firing)
(woman screams)
(woman sobbing)
(intense music)
(fire crackling)
- [Joe] They done set this place on fire.
- [Woman] Oh, no.
- Help me find the keys.
Come on, now.
(horses neighing)
(women screaming)
(fire crackling)
(horses neighing)
(intense music)
(boards splintering)
- [Charley] They're gone.
There was a tunnel down there.
- [Andrew] Mount up.
(anxious music)
- Shadrack, it's all on account of you.
You got us running through this swamp running your big mouth
and getting that barn burnt.
- Don't mess with me just 'cause you can't stay up
on them big feet of yourn.
(Shadrack moans)
(women squealing)
- [Woman] Stop, stop.
- Get on off of him.
Get off him.
We got enough fighting off patrollers
instead of fighting amongst ourselves, hear?
- Ain't we gonna stop to rest?
- [Harriet] No.
- She don't know where she going?
Bet you our lives, she don't know.
- Get up, come on, get up.
All right, y'all, we're gonna camp here tonight.
Lots of animals around.
Gonna go set my trap before night falls.
- I'm beginning to believe you, Shadrack.
She don't know where we is or where we's going to.
- You just leave that up to me.
'Cause I'm gonna set this journey straight,
first chance I get.
- Damn, y'all.
I told you all not to start no night fires.
- My family's freezing to death out here.
- We'll all be dead if the patrollers see
these flames out here.
- Moses, please.
We can't go on the way you been pushing us.
- You gonna be pushed some more
because we sure can't stay here now.
- You saying we got to leave here?
- That's right.
Somebody done for sure seen these flames.
We got to find us another sleeping ground.
Anybody here dispute my word?
I'll shoot him dead.
Now, move it.
(dramatic music)
- No more?
- [Harriet] No more.
- Hm, sure was a small squirrel.
- All right, folks.
Got a long hard way ahead of us now.
Don't want no more whining from Tazwell And Shadrack here.
It's time y'all started behaving like men.
- You sayin' I ain't no man?
- Sometimes you make me wonder about you, Tazwell.
Course, for that one there, I'm sure.
- Y'all hear that?
(women giggling)
You hear it?
I told you she doesn't like me.
- Time to march, momma, let's go.
- I'm gonna make you eat them words, Hat Tubman.
- I know.
- Hold up.
Hold up, hold up.
We's going south.
We ain't going north.
she's takin' us back to where we come from.
I told you she don't know where she's goin'.
- No, no, please no.
Say it's not true.
- Is what he saying the truth, Moses?
- She ain't no Moses.
She ain't nothing but old stuck up Hat Tubman.
- Tell us, woman.
Say something.
- You right.
I got us backtracked, but I did it on purpose.
That man Coleman and his slave catchers was so close to us
for us to keep moving as we was.
He ain't looking for us to be going south.
He looking for us to be going north.
I figure now, we can make the turn about,
hoping he's far enough north and done give up,
thinking we made it over the border.
(woman screaming)
- Oh, god.
(he sobs)
That's Roy Jackson.
From the Anderson plantation.
He musta been trying to run like us.
- Get up, Joe.
You ain't gonna be able to help him now.
- There ain't nothing we can do.
I been trying to help you along
'cause I thought you were gonna get us out of here.
With all this walking and running and hiding,
all while we was hungry just to get us here.
Well, you ain't gonna get us no where is you?
Is you?
(wind howling)
- You said this was a safe pass and it ain't.
Then you said we was headed north and we ain't.
You ain't fit to lead no more.
I plan to get us north myself.
(Shadrack moans)
- You ever try that again, I'll put a hole in your head
full enough to roll a train through.
You fool.
We coulda all gotten ourselves caught
and killed right here on account of you.
Now, get up where I can see you plain.
Don't you dare try to run off by yourself.
'Cause I'll throw you in hell with this pistol.
Now, haul your no-class behind on.
Go on, now I said.
(train chugging)
- [Charley] Now, why we going north for?
She sure ain't there?
- [Andrew] Ahead of her, Charley, that's where we're going.
- [Conductor] East coast traveler boarding for Philadelphia,
Princeton, Newark, New York City.
(train chugging)
(tranquil music)
- Everybody, get down.
Down quick.
(chickens clucking)
- [Karl] Moses, welcome, Moses.
Moses.
- Mr. Muller, you's the best lookin' man
I seen in a long, long time.
- Am I glad to see you, Moses.
- My Lord.
This here is Mr. Muller.
He's a friend.
- Welcome, welcome.
- I couldn't tell you this outside for fear
you'd get beside yourselves, but I can tell you now.
You folks is in the North.
(group cheers)
- We's in the North.
We's in the North.
Come on, y'all.
Come on.
We's in the North.
- [Group] We's in the North.
We's in the North.
We's in the North
We's in the North.
- Shut up now, hush up.
(all panting)
We's in the North, all right.
But we ain't safe yet.
Keep the noise down.
Before them folks out there hear you.
- Yeah, hush up, y'all 'cause we's in the North.
Hush up now, 'cause we's in the North.
- [Group] Hush up now, we's in the North.
Hush up now, 'cause we's in the North.
Hush up now, we's in the North.
- [Karl] Moses.
- Slave catchers, here?
- Yeah, (speaking in foreign language).
- Yeah, they still?
(Karl speaking in foreign language)
- [Karl] Gone, yeah.
- Bless God.
(Karl speaking in foreign language)
- Yeah.
- [Harriet] We go quick.
(Karl speaking in foreign language)
- Come on.
- Okay, we gotta get out of here.
- [Tazwell] How we going?
- We go in that wagon right there.
- Why that man talk like he do?
Sound like he's got a disease in his mouth.
- No worse than what you got in yours.
(women giggle)
Go get in the wagon, y'all.
Get in the wagon.
(uplifting music)
(dog barking)
- Very, sorry.
Now, thee and thy passengers will be taken by wagon
to the next underground station.
There thee will travel afoot to Allenville
where a Mr. Rawlings will furnish thee
with rail tickets to Rochester.
Where thee shall spend the night
before taking the final train to Canada.
But I must warn thee,
the remainder of thy journey is fraught with serious danger.
Slave catchers and United States Marshalls are swarming
over the entire East Coast in search of thee
and thy passengers.
- Why's they puttin' so much behind this journey?
- For two reasons, there is a rumor
out amongst the slave people that this is thy last journey.
And does thou have a Josiah Bailey as a passenger?
- Yes.
- [Thomas] There is a reward of $50,000 out for his capture.
- [Shadrack] Master Hughlett sure wants his buck back,
don't he?
- [Harriet] Shadrack!
- Of course, you must realize Harriet
with such a large reward out for a capture
of one of they passengers
the danger of this journey has only just--
- [Joe] I ain't going back.
I ain't going back.
- [Harriet] Go get him.
- [Joe] I ain't going back.
I ain't going back.
- [Shadrack] Hold him down.
- I ain't going.
I ain't going back.
I ain't going back, no.
- Leave him be.
Leave him be, I say.
All right, Joe, get up.
Come on now, get you and get in the wagon.
(birds chirping)
- You think he'll be all right?
- [Harriet] I hope so.
- We pray so.
Here are thy passes.
- Thank you.
- God speed.
- God bless you too, Mr. Garrett.
God bless.
(uplifting music)
- Ha, ha!
Ha!
(train chugging)
- Joe, Joe, please say something.
It's gonna be all right.
Nobody's gonna catch us now.
Joe.
- Did he say somethin'?
- He can't.
He gone off his ward.
- He'll be all right.
- All right, my foot.
She talkin', talkin', he don't hear nothin'.
- He don't say nothin' neither and you best do likewise.
- Ain't that somethin?
Big old buck like him, going on like a sissy.
And to think he had cheek enough to tangle with me.
- Shadrack, where's your manners?
Ain't you got none?
Don't you see that boy's scared out of his life?
Born evil, you was.
Look out the window and shut your face.
- [Shadrack] Hmm.
(train chugging)
- I tell ya, they gotta take
the Canadian special out of Rochester.
If you jump ahead, you can grab it at Parma
and take 'em off at a freight stop
just this side of the border.
- [Andrew] Get some horses.
- I musta seen a dozen runaways caught at that stop.
Hey, when you get them two rewards,
don't forget about old Bowers, hear?
(train whistle blowing)
- Ha, come on, come on.
Ha, come on.
- Harriet.
- Bless God.
I sure am glad to see you.
What kept you?
- Frederick Douglass and I met at Sister Rachel's home
and we were being watched up until about an hour ago.
Here are your tickets.
I've got some bad news for you, Harriet.
- Yes.
- Coleman is in the North and is directly on your trail.
- They just won't give up, will they?
- Not this time.
Now, he'll probably try to head you off at Parma.
So you watch out for him every stretch of that area.
- Of that you can be sure.
- Is this really the last journey, Sister Harriet?
- Yes.
- I'll believe that when the last slave is free.
(he laughs)
Oh, by the way, Frederick Douglass
asked me to give you this.
- Frederick?
- Yes, Frederick.
- My, my.
- Good luck to you, Harriet.
And God bless you.
- Thank you, William, for everything you been to me.
Thank you.
- Yes.
- [Shadrack] It's crazy, matter of fact,
there ain't no slave catchers.
- [Tazwell] Yes, they is.
- [Shadrack] There ain't no slave catchers
and next she'll be telling us--
- Hush up, Shadrack.
- What you expect us to do?
Sit here closed mouthed all day acting like ghosts?
- Yes, unless you want this depot raided by bounty hunters.
Now, sit down.
(somber music)
(rain dripping)
- May I sit?
I would like to say you're just about
the smartest, nicest somebody I ever knowed.
- Thank you, Bernette, that's sweet.
- And you is one tough lady.
For a while back there, I actually thought
you was gonna make Shadrack wet in his pants.
(Harriet laughs)
Why you and him so hateful towards each other?
- I don't think that's worth talkin' about, Bernette.
- But, still I'd like to know, if you don't mind telling me.
- Well, a long, long time ago my momma
and daddy were owned by a master named Ed.
And he bought Shadrack from somewhere,
I believe it was Georgia.
Brought him back to the plantation
without a momma and daddy.
It wasn't long after that Shadrack asked my momma
and daddy if he could come and stay with us.
Course, my daddy said yes.
But he had to ask Master Ed for permission.
Master Ed said no.
- So that's where the trouble started.
Master Ed told Shadrack it was your family didn't want him.
- That's right.
- And a slave always believes what his master says
over another slave.
- An old, old truth, Bernette.
An old truth.
(rain dripping)
- [Charley] I don't see why
we don't snatch 'em off right here.
- We're in the North now, remember?
They may have help coming.
- She ain't thinking anything like that.
All she's thinking about is getting to Canada.
- Charley, all the years we been chasing Miss Moses
and all the misses, you haven't learned a damned thing.
- You hear that?
You know what your trouble is, Andy?
Y'all was born a Yankee, y'all always be one.
Calling her Miss Moses.
- I call her that because I respect her.
- Respect?
Well, I'll be damned.
I don't believe what I'm hearing.
How can you respect some old Black--
- Charley, there are two things I will not abide;
clutter and a barking dog and you're becoming both.
Yes, I respect the lady.
That's why I'm gonna catch her.
(train chugging)
- [Conductor] Onward.
Onward to York.
Onward to station.
(train bell ringing)
- Is you ready to fight for your life as a man
or you wants to be a slave all your life?
- [Shadrack] What you talking about?
- [Harriet] The slave catchers' on this train.
- Well, sure I is.
- Come with me.
(train whistle blowing)
- [Shadrack] Ah, ah, I got you.
I got you.
I got you, slave catcher.
I got you.
Shadrack, done got you.
I got you.
- I've waited a long time for this, Miss Moses.
What the hell you doing?
(Charley screams)
(dramatic music)
- Hello, Miss Moses, finally we meet.
- We never met, Mr. Coleman.
You left.
- So y'all should have been there,
'cause when I sees them, Tazwell.
When they sees me, I mean.
When they sees me, they looks at me
I sees that they scared.
They scared to death.
Well, I walks up to 'em
and I says I been lookin' for you slave catchers
for a long time.
Been wantin' to get my hands on you.
Then I balled up my fist
and he sees the biggest, blackest fist comin' at him.
Boy, I--
- You lying fool.
You better sit down and shut your mouth up.
We ain't there yet.
(train chugging)
- Bernie, would you mind reading this to me, please?
- Sure, Moses.
Dear, Sister Harriet.
They tell me that you have taken your last journey
and I thought this would be an appropriate time
to express some honored words
for your great offering to mankind.
As for myself, I have had the applause of the crowd
and the satisfaction that comes
of being approved of by the multitude.
While the most of what you have done has been--
- [Narrator] Has been witnessed by a few trembling,
scared and footsore men and women,
whom you've led out of the house of bondage
and who's heartfelt God bless you has been your only reward.
The midnight sky and the silent stars
have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom
and of your heroism.
Much that you have done would seem improbable
to those who do not know you, as I know you.
Your eternal friend and compatriot, Frederick Douglass.
(gentle music)
- [Conductor] End of the line.
St. Catherines, Canada.
End of the line.
- This is it, Moses.
- This is it, Bernie.
First we make a quick stop, then we comes to a bridge
and once we cross that bridge, we's in Canada.
Bless God.
Joe, we's almost there.
Joe, we's almost in Canada.
Just think, maybe you'll get a little place.
You and Bernette could be man and wife.
There no master to stop you there, Joe.
Maybe you get a little piece of land
and you and Bernette could work it together.
You have some cows, a barn.
(train whistle blowing)
You could get a house with a yard
and rail around, oh, Joe--
- It's no use, Miss Harriet.
We'll all be across the line,
but it won't make no difference to him.
He'll still be a slave.
- No, honey.
There's got to be a difference.
It's just got to.
I mean, Joe.
Listen to me, Joe.
- Why is we stopping, Moses?
Joe!
- [Harriet] Stop him.
Get him my friends.
(Joe sobbing)
- Joe, Joe.
You see that bridge?
You see it?
All we gotta do is cross that bridge
and we's in Canada.
- That's the bridge, Joe.
(Joe crying)
(Joe yells)
(group cheers)
- I'm free.
I'm free.
- [Conductor] Hey, hey, what's going on here?
- Well, Mr. Conductor I wish I could tell you,
but there just ain't no words.
(all laughing)
- Well, you better get back on the train.
We're leaving, right away.
- Well, y'all heard what the man said.
Come on, let's get on board.
- Oh, no, no, no wait a minute, y'all.
We ain't getting on no train.
We's gonna walk across that bridge.
And me and Bernette here is gonna be
the first ones to touch our freedom.
(triumphant music)
(train whistle blowing)
(group cheering)
- [Narrator] Unquenchable, inexhaustible,
this precious thing of men and women
crossing over from bondage to freedom,
tis likened to the supreme miracle of a child's birth.
And so the woman called Moses gazes off into the distance.
No, this would not be the last of her journeys.
Harriet Ross Tubman returned many times to the South
and escorted some 3,000 slaves to freedom
in the northern states and Canada
by way of what was called the Underground Railroad
and never lost a passenger.
One of the most incredible feats of Harriet Tubman's life
was her contribution to the Union Army during the Civil War.
She was employed in reconnaissance
and led a raid behind enemy lines with 16 volunteers
destroying the Confederate Army's
most important ammunition depot
and returning to the northern side of the fighting lines
without losing a soldier.
Harriet Tubman devoted the balance of her life
to the woman's suffragette movement
and to the poor and the aged of all colors.
She was honored with a medallion for services rendered
to humankind by the royal throne of England.
Harriet Tubman died on March 10, 1913
and was buried in Auburn's Fort Hill Cemetery,
with military honors.
(triumphant music)
♪ She was the pride of her people ♪
♪ Leader and friend ♪
♪ Mighty soldier fighting for human rights ♪
♪ She made her father respect her ♪
♪ And in the end ♪
♪ Led her people from darkness to the light ♪
♪ They call her Moses, Moses ♪
♪ Moses was her name ♪
♪ Moses, Moses ♪
♪ Moses was her name ♪
(Multicom jingle)