[wind whooshing]
♪ ♪
[exhaling]
Ah!
[baby crying]
[crying continues]
♪ ♪
[Cora] The first and last thing my mama gave me...
...was apologies.
[birds singing]
[water rippling loudly]
[people singing in distance]
What?
Expect me to howl?
I hadn't had that much moonshine, no.
I want to talk to you.
Well, we talking. Now what?
What can I do for you, Caesar?
I'm heading back north.
Soon.
Running away, and I want you to come with.
You heading north?
And I'm gonna eat. [scoffs]
No, please, Cora.
I don't want you to tell on me. Have to trust you on that.
But I'm getting on away from here; I have to.
Well, what you want me for?
Good luck.
Good luck?
Now you listen here, Caesar.
I know you ain't been on this plantation long at all,
but one thing you gots to know by now is I ain't nobody's
"good luck."
Ain't nobody's... [sighs]
- [rhythmic clapping] - [tambourine jingling]
[happy shouting and whooping]
[indistinct singing]
[singing continues]
- ♪ In that old field ♪ - [indistinct shouts]
♪ In that old field ♪
♪ In that old field...
Now, Jockey, you got to eat something, you hear?
Mabel?
No, Jockey, it's Cora.
Mabel, where you been at?
Easy. That's good.
- Can you handle it? - Mm-hmm.
- Okay. - That's good. Mmm.
Mmm.
♪ In that old field ♪♪
[dogs barking]
[horse whinnies]
- [singing stops] - [shouting stops]
[low chatter]
- [insects trilling] - [quiet whispers]
[clears throat softly]
[exhales sharply]
Master James. Master Terrance.
Oh, don't let us bother you.
My brother and I were discussing business
and heard the music.
I told him, "Now that is the most god-awful racket
I ever heard." [laughs]
God, what a ruckus.
We's sorry to disturb you, Master Terrance.
Oh, no, no, no. No, no. No disturbance at all, Jockey.
No disturbance at all.
You sure have a peculiar way of handling your niggers, brother.
I do with my property as I well please.
And you with yours.
Daddy roll over in his grave, he saw this.
Let him roll.
Say, Jockey... when is your birthday, anyway?
Uh, I reckon September...
September 14.
But it ain't but June, Jockey.
I reckon you right.
How old about is you now?
I really can't say, Master Terrance.
That's quite all right, Jockey, that's...
that's quite all right.
I knew you let your slaves have revels, but... [laughs]
I had no idea they were so extravagant.
You trying to make me look bad?
Do not pretend you care what a nigger thinks of you, Terrance.
Well, you got me there.
Let's get this parlor trick over with, dear brother.
I don't care to endure this stench much longer.
Prideful!
[Prideful] Yes sir, Master Terrance.
[Terrance] Prideful, my brother
tells me about a nigger he has down here
this side of the property. S... says the boy can recite
the Declaration of Independence.
Now, I can't bring myself to believe him.
I thought, perhaps tonight he could show me,
since everyone is out and about
and engaging in revelry.
Prideful... run, go bring me the boy
who can recite the Declaration, hmm?
Michael?
The boy with the scar right about here, huh?
Sorry, sir, but the boy Michael dead and gone.
Sickness took him.
[Terrence laughing quietly]
When?
Maybe six... six, seven months ago now, sir.
- [laughing quietly] - I should have been told.
Brother, you need to keep better account of your property.
Don't meddle.
This boy can do it.
[man] [whispers] No. Prideful...
He and Michael be together all the time.
Let him do it.
[boy coughs]
Well, come on, boy, let's hear it.
Do as master say.
[quietly] You gonna get us all killed.
Wh-wh-when... [sniffles]
W-When in... in the course of...
of main events... it begone...
[laughs] Well, Lord, I done seen and heard it all now.
[clears throat]
When in the course of human events
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which connect them with another,
and to assume amongst the powers of the earth
the separate and equal station that the laws of nature
and nature's God entitle them...
I's sorry, Master. I's sorry! Please forgive me.
[cries out]
No!
[insects trilling]
[coughs]
[bird squawks echoing]
- [whip cracks] - [Cora groans]
[ragged breathing]
[Cora sobbing]
[whip cracking loudly]
[birds squawking]
[heavy breathing]
- Easy. - [shuddering]
Drink some of this.
Easy now, child. Easy.
[Ruth] She ain't right, you know?
When Mabel run off and left,
I feel like something broke in her heart.
Ain't been right since.
[Cora groans softly]
[whispers] She can still hear youse, you know.
How y'all talk so bad about a girl right in her face?
If Mabel was here, she'd knock all hell out y'all.
[door creaking open]
[Agnes] Ain't supposed to be in here, now.
Ain't she been beat near to death already?
♪ ♪
[horse neighs]
[sheep bleating]
[door creaks closed]
[Caesar] The air is better in here.
It's good for you.
What if Connelly come looking?
[Caesar] Don't you worry. Won't nobody come in here.
"But this, I conceived, was to be the least of my misfortunes.
For as human creatures are observed to be more savage
and cruel in proportion to their bulk,
what could I expect, but to be a morsel
in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians
that should happen to seize me?"
Master cut out your tongue
and pour poison down your throat, he know you can read.
What is it?
It's called Gulliver's Travels.
It's about...
...a man on a trip.
He's lost and trying to get home.
In this part, he talking about...
giants like Goliath.
And how, on account of them being bigger and more powerful,
they must also be more evil and more cruel.
Like white mens.
Cora, will you come with me?
It is past time to go.
There is nothing here but suffering.
Pain and suffering.
You're wrong about me, Caesar.
You think I'm some kind of luck
because my mama got away, but you wrong.
You wrong.
I ain't no kind of luck.
Only kind I had was rotten.
The kind that cause a woman to run away
in the middle of the night,
and leave her only child.
Leave her to bleed and rot on this damn plantation.
That the kind of luck you looking for?
I'm not supposed to be here.
But I am.
♪ ♪
[Francis] Something wrong with you.
Nothing's wrong with me.
[Francis] Master says we lie down, that means we lie down.
Ain't no other way about it.
Listen here.
I know about men like you.
You want to sneak off in the night
and roll around the swamp with other mens on your back,
that's your business.
But here? Between us?
Master put a man and woman together
because he aims to produce.
And if that man and that woman don't produce,
it's for sure gonna be a reckoning,
you understand me?
I won't be bred like cattle.
You got a mighty fine heart, Caesar.
Pure, like Jesus Christ hisself.
But this ain't Virginia.
And if you don't use your sex,
Master Randall will take it.
He take it right off and put it somewhere
you won't ever have to bother with this no more.
You ain't no better than the rest of us.
And I won't suffer for you.
- [dog barking in distance] - [sheep bleating]
[grunting softly]
Grab your things.
Why?
Come on now, grab your things, don't make a ruckus.
Come on, Prideful, set that nigger right! Let's go!
Yes, sir, boss. Come on now.
- Please... - Come on, child.
Please. I was born in this room,
my mama born in this room.
- Tell him... - Goddamn it.
- Come on! - No, no! No, no...
- Grab her legs. - No, no, no. No, no, no!
No. No. No. No...
- [crying] No, no! - Grab her legs.
No! No!
No, no. No, no!
No! No. No.
No! No! N-No!
- No! - Come on. Get up.
No! No! No!
- No! No! - Come on.
- Get on. - No! No!
Y'all get in there, clean that mess up.
I don't want none of that hoodoo black magic mess.
- Now, come on! - [claps hands]
You, go!
Hurry up!
Make it shine!
[panting echoing]
[clears throat] Run along, Hezekiah.
- Yes, sir. - Go on back to your mammy.
Yes, sir, boss.
[clearing throat]
[coughing]
[groans]
[fly buzzing]
[Connelly] Hold, now.
[Prideful] Niggers, hold.
All you niggers, hold!
Y'all bow your heads, now.
Bow your heads for my brother, James,
succumbed to illness, gone on to be with God.
Like my mama and daddy before him,
and like all great masters
blessed to have received God's grace.
[Prideful] Amen, Master Terrance.
Amen.
Now...
previously, my brother and I
shared ownership of this fine land,
like our great country,
divided into north and south.
Henceforth...
there will be no north and south parcels.
We will be one plantation.
And I shall have say over all slaves who dwell here.
If you wish, you may confer with your brethren
from the southern plantation, but, uh...
[chuckles] ...my brother and I
have a very different approach
to the conditioning and coordination of slaves.
Accordingly,
there will be no more parties.
Wages earned in town on Sundays
will be subject to a tariff.
And, to ensure the propagation of the best stock,
I will personally oversee the pairing and practices
in the ways of breeding.
For too long, the best stock has been reserved
for recreational and...
[chuckles] ...not vocational use.
Some of you bucks
ain't been living up to your billing!
[chuckles]
[insects chittering]
[Prideful] E-Everything all right, Master Terrance?
Everything is just fine, Prideful.
Everything is just fine.
[muffled] Come on!
Come on, now!
[boy] Come on!
[whinnies]
[boy] Come on, now!
Come on!
[boy] Come on, now! Get in there!
[whinnies]
Hallelujah.
The Lord hath smiled on the house of Randall.
Water the horses before we get to the books, sir?
[Terrance] That'll be fine, Homer.
Mm-mm-mm.
Shall we?
Oh, boy.
We shall.
Please inform Mr. Connelly
that the prodigal son hath returned.
[Terrance] Best you ran on.
[Ridgeway] Do you have ears amongst your niggers here?
[Terrance] Can't say that we do.
There are niggers in the house, of course,
eager to gain favor by airing grievances
against those in the fields, but...
Well, you would do well to place some there.
There's talk.
There's word of an underground railroad here.
[chuckling] I-Impossible.
[chuckles] Indeed.
And yet, where do they go?
The ones that run away and...
never return?
It is as though a nigger escapes
and slips through to a different world.
[Terrance] Have you seen it?
A man working as-as you do, do you believe
the underground railroad is true?
[Ridgeway] I have not seen it.
But... the nigger is a mighty cunning breed.
Nothing about the world tells me it is impossible.
When I see it, I'll believe it.
Now, to the matter at hand.
I will not accept payment
for the property's return.
Consider it a recompense.
For fulfillment of my debt to your house.
Good day.
I'm sorry, I...
I don't follow.
Property that took leave of here,
many years ago before your father passed.
The only property to have absconded
and not been returned.
I consider it my sincerest failure.
[Terrance] I know the nigger you speak of.
The worst kind--
it must be said-- heartless, even for a nigger.
[Ridgeway] Is that so?
It is very much so. The nigger you speak of,
in leaving, appears to have left behind her seed.
A nigger girl whom, even amongst the niggers themselves,
is considered a monster.
I would like an audience with this girl.
And a...
an audience you shall have.
[door creaks open]
[exhales softly]
[clock ticking loudly]
You feel betrayed.
As you should.
[Cora inhales deeply]
Oh, there's anger in you.
Best find a way to do away with that.
It'll eat you alive if you don't.
See, the heart has a way of working through the body.
It'll fuel you, yes, but...
well, it's the worst kind of fuel.
The worst kind.
Oh, she is within you.
I can feel it.
And you will run yourself into the ground
just to be rid of her.
Yes, you will.
By God, you will.
[sighs]
Sorry for the intrusion.
[door creaks open]
[door closes]
[insects trilling]
[distant owl hoots]
[man panting]
[rhythmic thudding]
[panting]
♪ ♪
"I had often read of some
great services done to princes and states."
[exhales]
"And desired to see the persons
by whom those services were performed.
Upon inquiry, I was told that their names were...
to be found on no record.
Except a few of them,
whom... history hath represented
as the vilest rogues and traitors.
As to the rest,
I had never once heard of them.
They all appeared with dejected looks,
and in the meanest habit.
Most of them telling me they died
in poverty and disgrace,
and the rest on a scaffold or a gibbet."
[door closes]
- ♪ ♪ - [laughter]
You've hardly touched your food, Mr. Churchill.
[Churchill] Oh. Oh, pardon me, but...
I don't understand how one can eat
while such a display is taking place.
Rather peculiar, wouldn't you say, to eat a-and to drink
while a man's flesh is being ripped from his body.
[Terrance] Well...
Mr. Churchill, your first mistake,
uh, a nigger and a man... [laughs]
...are two entirely different things.
A man can think,
reason and love.
Niggers simply do not have the capacity for such things.
As such, it is important to provide them
with restrictions and-and directions
on how to comport themselves.
And when these restrictions and directions are not abided by,
it is just as important...
to make an example of them.
[Big Anthony screams]
[Prideful] Y'all come on in, now.
Master Randall want everybody come in.
Y'all niggers, come on.
Leave them sacks where they lay.
Come on, now.
Leave them sacks where they lay.
Come on.
Y'all hands, over there.
Y'all niggers, come on.
Come on, Lovey.
Ruth, let's go.
All right.
Keep moving.
[whip cracking]
[Big Anthony moaning]
- Y'all niggers, come on. - [whip cracking continues]
[moaning continues]
[groans]
Gather round, my little sheep.
Gather round.
Today...
I wish you all to bear witness
to this lesson.
[Big Anthony moaning]
[Terrance clears throat]
"Let all who are under a yoke as slaves
regard their own masters as worthy of all honor...
- [moaning weakly] - ...so the name of God
and the teachings may not be reviled.
Those who have believing masters...
...must not be disrespectful
on the ground that they are brothers;
rather they must serve all the better...
since those who benefit from their good service
- [Big Anthony] No more! - are believers and beloved.
Teach...
teach and urge these things."
[Big Anthony] No more mercy! No more slaves!
[Terrance] "Regard their own masters
as worthy of all honor."
This is the word of God.
- See? - [Big Anthony] God damn you!
God damn you!
- What is the penalty... - [Big Anthony] No...
...for disobeying the word of God?
No!
Damnation...
[Big Anthony grunting]
...and eternal fire.
[Big Anthony screaming]
[upbeat dance tune begins]
♪ ♪
[whispering] It's time.
[Prideful] All you niggers get back to work.
Quit your lollygagging. Back to work!
[fire crackling]
[music continues playing]
Back to work!
Now!
♪ ♪
[creaks softly]
♪ ♪
[people snoring softly]
[insects trilling]
[leaves rustling in distance]
[rustling]
[bird calls]
♪ ♪
- [insects trilling] - [birds calling]
[rustling]
[rustling continues]
[Lovey] Cora?
[Caesar] Lovey.
[Cora] Lovey... shh!
[Lovey] I knew you was up to something.
Sneaking around with him and not talking about it.
And then you dig up them yams,
not even ripe yet.
Lovey, get you back before you ruin us.
I'm going where y'all going.
He ain't gonna take three of us.
[Cora] He know I'm coming?
Well, then two surprise as good as one.
We got enough food, anyway.
Come on.
[insects trilling]
[rooster crows]
[urinating]
[exhales]
[Lovey humming a tune]
[Cora] Shh!
- ♪ Gonna give him ♪ - Shh.
♪ All the beauty in the world...
[Caesar] Lovey...
[Lovey stops singing]
- [humming a tune] - [Cora] Uh.
Hog trail.
Boar.
I'm gonna check this out right quick.
[Cora] Maybe you make use of that whittling knife
and catch us some dinner.
[Lovey resumes humming]
[Cora screams]
[both screaming]
- [Lovey screaming] - [man shouting]
[all shouting]
[grunting]
Come here, you son of a bitch.
[Lovey screaming]
[screams]
[screaming]
[Cora shouting indistinctly]
[man shouting]
[Cora] No!
- No! - [man yells]
[both yelling]
[Cora yells]
[panting]
[whimpering, panting]
[insects trilling]
♪ ♪
Hold up.
Where are we?
[panting heavily]
I don't know.
Are we going the right way?
I don't know.
Did you tell Lovey where we going?
- Did you tell... - No.
We were foolish not to think on this.
Hounds be on us soon.
Every white man with a shotgun
within a hundred miles gonna... [shouts]
[whimpers]
We must keep going.
But what about Lovey?
What about Lovey?
[whimpers]
We must keep... we must keep going.
[water sloshing]
♪ ♪
[bird chirping]
- [whip cracks] - [gasps]
♪ ♪
[insects trilling]
That's it.
You sure?
See that red roof there?
That's us.
You mean that's you.
Don't nobody know I'm coming.
Well, they do now.
You ready?
♪ ♪
[dishes clattering]
[footsteps approaching]
[dishes softly clatter]
How are you managing?
We're fine.
Any word from the third in our party?
It's the talk of the state.
From the moment you left, it was the girl who did you in.
They noticed her going before they did you,
and set out after you on the very first night.
And I trust that she has
no knowledge of me or our plans.
She does not. No.
[Fletcher] There's one other thing.
There was a boy on the trail...
...with a group of hunters who lit onto you, and, well,
he has it pretty bad from the knock you gave him.
They say he's in a sleep from which he may never wake.
Have mercy.
Mercy for who?
Every white man for a hundred miles
wants to mount your heads on a fence.
When the train comin'?
Find a corner.
- We going down there? - Yes, indeed.
Mind this ladder, now.
After you.
♪ ♪
[Fletcher] Now, as the train will be here shortly,
I just need a word for the manifest.
[Caesar] I beg your pardon?
All who journey on the railroad
must be documented in the manifest.
How else will we account
for the souls entrusted to this campaign?
Now, you may speak as much or as little as you like,
but you must speak.
Yeah, I'll speak for the both of us.
Um...
Caesar Garner.
Um...
Cora Randall.
Born to Virginia.
Upon the death of my massa, was promised manumission.
Upon my massa dying, was sold on down to Georgia.
Cora was born on the Randall plantation.
That's where we met.
Who built all this?
[Fletcher] Who builds anything in this country?
[Caesar] How far does it go?
[Fletcher] Away from here, that's all I can tell you.
[distant rumbling]
♪ ♪
[brakes hissing]
[engineer] All aboard!
Almost forgot.
[door opens, closes]
I was keeping this for you.
You're so close to finishing.
Be a shame not to see it to its conclusion.
If you want to see what this nation's all about,
you got to ride the rails.
Just look outside as you speed through,
and you'll see the true face of America.
[engine rumbling]
[♪ Outkast: "B.O.B."]
[whispers] ♪ One, two ♪
- ♪ One, two, three ♪ - ♪ Yeah! ♪
♪ Inslumnational, underground ♪
♪ Thunder pounds when I stomp the ground ♪
♪ Like a million elephants or silverback orangutans ♪
♪ You can't stop a train, who want some? ♪
♪ Don't come unprepared, I'll be there ♪
♪ But when I leave there, better be a household name ♪
♪ Weatherman tellin' us it ain't gon' rain ♪
♪ So now we sittin' in a drop-top, soaking wet ♪
♪ In a silk suit, tryin' not to sweat ♪
♪ Hit somersaults without the net ♪
♪ But this'll be the year that we won't forget ♪
♪ One-nine-nine-nine, Anno Domini, anything goes ♪
♪ Be what you wanna be, long as you know ♪
♪ Consequences are given for livin', the fence is. ♪
[man] There's word of an underground railroad.
It is as though they slip through to a different world.
[man 2] Welcome to your future.
[Caesar] This is real, Cora.
You here. I'm here.
We here.
[woman] Together, we are building
a better mind for the practical betterment
of Negro mind!
[Caesar] There are things happening here
that we don't really understand.
There's a train coming.
- [man] Your name? - [Cora] Cora Randall.
I took the Underground from South Carolina.
Should have stayed there.
[Arnold] The girl in that bulletin is wanted
for the murder of a child.
I'm gonna get us out of here. I promise.
♪ ♪
Hello, little missy.
We've been waiting on you.
You came all this way on the Railroad?
And left behind all those peoples.
I'm still just a runaway from Georgia.
[man] You're safe here, Cora.
[Cora] Ain't no way he ever giving up on finding me.
[Arnold] I need you
to be strong, watchful. Like me.
♪ ♪
This wonderful place...
...built out of Black love
and spirit.
We can escape slavery.
And yet its scars will never fade.
♪ ♪
Everything that you ever knew
told you that freedom
was a delusion.
And yet here we are.
♪ ♪