♪
[SAM] The ocean floor still holds traces
of the transatlantic slave trade,
but it also tells another story.
♪
There were hundreds of slave rebellions.
Stories of uprising and uplifting.
Everybody didn't just hang their head and come over.
[dogs barking]
[SALADIN] You're talking about stories of resilience,
and it wasn't possible for people to make these journeys
unless you had a network of people who were striving
to ensure the freedom of others.
[all shouting]
[NATALIE] The Africans managed to kill most of them
and they commanded to sail the ship back to Africa
and return them to their homes.
[FALLON] The African American
who were on the edges of the river banks
realized what was happening,
that this was their moment, that they should run,
that they should take that one chance at freedom.
[PAUL] The slaves had songs with hidden meanings,
with double meanings, coded songs.
♪
[KRAMER] I know that people on that wreck
made it to freedom.
♪
It's not just a story of victims.
It's a story of heroes.
♪
[chain grinding]
♪
[AFUA] We're in the shadow of Fort Amsterdam,
which is the first fort where prisoners
were held enslaved in this country.
♪
When we talk about what became the slave trade,
it couldn't have all transpired in peace.
There had to be moments of uprising
and people resisting.
Think about the people who trafficked Africans,
they were so few of them
compared to the number of people they were carrying.
The audacity to think that a few men
could subdue hundreds,
and when they got to plantations,
thousands of enslaved people--
that required so much violence and fear.
[grunting]
[SIMCHA] It's amazing that they rise at all.
You've got your wife, your children, your husband.
The other guys have the guns and the police
and the system.
It's very hard to resist.
You can either be whipped
into complacency or fear
or you can be mad as hell when they open that hole
and you come out of there it's like, "Argh."
[all screaming and grunting]
[blade cutting flesh]
[scattered gunshots]
People were rising up. People were fighting back.
People were making plans.
[scattered gunshots]
Africans were not accepting this state of affairs.
And I want to know how much resistance was going on,
what forms did it take and where?
♪
[seagulls calling]
In the United States, for many,
resistance took the form of the Underground Railroad.
♪
On this mission, we're not looking for a slave ship.
We're diving to find something that's pretty much
the exact opposite, ships of freedom.
These were ships that took runaway slaves
from America into Canada,
from slavery to freedom.
♪
So, all of you are going to be diving in an area
that is significant in terms of the Underground Railroad.
There was a network, a network of people
and places that were significant in helping freedom seekers
that were traveling along routes in order to escape plantations.
[distant dogs barking]
You're talking about stories of resilience.
People being able to make this journey
from the south to the north,
and it wasn't possible unless you had that network
that was in place.
The way that people communicated was mouth to ear.
♪
People would be able to describe a person
in terms of where they lived at, what area they were going to,
what name that they responded to.
A network of people who were striving
to ensure the freedom of others.
So, they may know that there is a house or shelter
three or four miles up the road, right,
and then once they get there, they figure the rest of it out.
"I have no idea where I'm going
or how I'm going to get there, but I'm going."
[distant dogs barking]
At the same time,
there were bounty hunters tracking people
based upon descriptions.
And if you were caught aiding and abetting
a freedom seeker then you can risk
up to six months in jail and $1,000 fine at that time.
[ALLANAH] How do you even go about figuring out who to ask,
or where to go to?
When you're growing up on a plantation
and you're not allowed to read, you learn how to read people.
It would be an unspoken form of communication,
where they understood that sense of trust in one another.
So, my third great grandfather, Josiah Henson,
he was a slave for 41 years of his life
and he took his four children and made this journey
from Kentucky over 600 miles to Western New York.
Two of his children were so small,
he had to carry them in a knapsack on his back,
the entire journey.
[gentle waves lapping]
And he was able to cross over into Canada
in October of 1830.
Here's the waters.
Here's the terrain that your ancestors cross,
so you can be here, so a lot of us can be here.
We'll try and do you and your ancestor justice.
♪
There's so much about the slave trade
that makes Africans sound like passive captives,
but was there resistance?
Did they ever take matters into their own hands?
Yes, on a lot of occasions,
and actually historians estimate
that as many as one in 10 of the slaving voyages
had at least one episode of rebellion from the captives.
[all shouting]
Was it hard to stage a mutiny on a ship like this?
Slave ships were constructed in a very particular way
to minimize the likelihood of rebellion.
[chain rattling]
Captives would be below several decks,
they would be quite far away
from where the crew might be sleeping.
They would be in such cramped quarters,
it would be hard for them to physically organize themselves.
And there would be armed crew members
on duty around the clock.
The cannons could be turned inwards
and used to shoot at the captives
if there was a rebellion.
The people who were designing ships to use in the slave trade,
tried to make the ships resistance-proof.
It's incredible that people held under such oppressive conditions
could launch rebellions.
Were any of them actually successful?
Yes.
One we know most about was that of the "Amistad."
This was an attempt to transport some captives
from Havana to another part of Cuba.
[all shouting]
The crew was very small, so this large number of Africans
managed to kill most of them.
[all shouting]
But they kept a couple of them, including the helmsmen alive
and they commanded him to sail the ship back to Africa
and return them to their homes.
And in the end, they were set free,
and a number of them did return to their homes in Africa.
How successful were these rebellions when they happened?
Well, in most cases,
they weren't really very successful at all.
And I suspect many of the captives were aware
that they were not likely to succeed...
[all shouting and grunting]
But some of them preferred to die fighting,
particularly if they had been warriors
in their earlier lives.
And even those who were aware
that they were not likely to succeed,
preferred suicide.
♪
So, that yearning for freedom could manifest in a rebellion,
or it could manifest in suicide
with the hope that in death you would be free?
We know of one case which happened
at a place called Igbo Landing in Georgia in 1803.
And this was a mass suicide.
The Igbo people are known to be fiercely independent.
Yes.
[all screaming]
The entire group of captives from the ship were unloaded.
They looked over the ocean,
they realized how far they were from Africa,
that they would probably never see their loved ones
or homes again,
that whatever was going to happen to them in America
was not likely to be anything they would want to endure.
So, they turned around and walked one after the other,
into the water, and then they drowned.
♪
So, my third great-grandfather, he was Josiah Henson.
Saladin told us that ferry boats on the Great Lakes
often operated secretly as freedom boats.
So, he introduced us to historian John Polacsek,
an expert on sunken ships in the Great Lakes.
John took us out to a very specific spot on Lake Michigan,
where a steamer called "The Niagara" sank.
[gulls squawk]
[JOHN] We're out here on the site.
This is where "The Niagara" is, about 50 feet down below.
"The Niagara" was part of the Reed fleet
which is out of Erie, Pennsylvania.
The Reed family were major abolitionists,
and anytime you wanted to forward a fugitive slave,
you could contact one of the Reed boats.
Once they got on the boat,
the fugitives would blend in as crew members
until they had the opportunity to get to Detroit,
get on the ferry,
go across the mile to Windsor, Canada,
and then they would be free.
♪
[KINGA] Was the "Niagara" a fancy high-end boat?
Yes, it was.
[upbeat string music]
There were as many as 300 people
who were bringing their livelihood,
their whole families with them
And we know that the fugitive slaves
worked in the galley?
That's right, as waiters and other crew members.
In 1856, when the "Niagara" was coming back to Chicago,
a fire broke out and it sank.
Was there a loss of life on the "Niagara?"
Yes. More than a hundred people.
Over the years, a number of divers
have been down on the boat
and they were able to salvage several artifacts
which I've collected.
So, what we have is a spoon which was recovered
back in the 1960s.
At that time, it was legal
to pick up artifacts off of shipwrecks.
One of the other items found was a fork.
It has a wooden handle.
It's in good shape.
It was used to serve the diners.
The fugitive slaves, very likely,
they were out there setting out the silverware.
Yes.
It's going to be interesting diving this ship,
looking at it as a freedom boat and not a luxury ship.
[all talking over one another]
To dive these freezing waters,
we're using these special dry suits
to keep ourselves warm.
Usually people are looking for fancy items left by passengers,
but we're going down to try to recover and find items
that the runaway slaves were using
to serve those passengers.
[all talking over each other]
[MALLORY] What we're going to do today
is that we're going to go down
and we're going to look for the galley area
behind the boiler,
because we know that there were fugitive slaves
working in the galley.
So, we can find items that they may have used, touched,
and so it's always a chance we might find something
that no one's seen before.
♪
We go down the shot line to the ship's coordinates.
Mallory brought with her a diagram of the wreckage
so that we have a better chance of identifying the galley.
♪
And there's the wreck.
♪
It's torn to shreds,
probably from the fire that brought it down.
♪
After 160 years we could still see everything...
♪
the giant paddle wheel...
♪
the boiler that powered the engine.
♪
This was a ship that ferried runaways to freedom,
but where's the galley where the fugitives worked?
♪
And then we saw something bright,
something bright in the rubble.
♪
Woo!
[sigh] That was awesome.
♪
[ALLANAH] So, now, that plate, that's a direct connection
to these lawfully employed but fugitive slaves on board
in the galley, right?
Yes. It's like, that's a material... that's an item
that connects you straight to these people who were working
and living on these boats.
It was cold, it was dark and a little eerie...
Welcome back.
...but not sad.
It wasn't sad.
I know that in previous journeys,
people on that wreck
made it to freedom somewhere out there.
Their descendants are still alive.
[gentle waves crashing]
♪
So, John, the "Niagara" didn't take the fugitives
all the way to Canada.
Close, but not all the way.
Can we find a ship that went all the way,
smuggling fugitives, trying to get away to freedom,
to Canada?
Not something that was...
That was going along the lakes,
and they were moving people closer to Canada.
You want to find something
that was actually taking people to, like, freedom.
- Exactly. - Okay.
Yeah.
You're talking about boats which are down
on the bottom of the lake.
Right.
You have to verify the fact
that they actually did carry fugitives.
I have been collecting material for at least 25 years,
so what I'm planning on doing now
is to come up with something out of the file drawer
in the basement,
which will give us the name of a captain
and the history of the vessel.
Just to say that,
"Look, here we have something that's unusual."
And that's what we want.
The struggle for freedom in the United States
eventually led to the Civil War.
More than 150 years ago, on this river,
a daring military operation took place
where African American fought for their freedom.
[JEFF] The Combahee River Raid was the largest
freeing of enslaved people during the Civil War.
And it's a story that particularly here
in South Carolina, that's not told very often.
♪
June the 2nd, 1863, here you had rice fields
on both sides of the river.
You would have the enslaved people out working
in pre-dawn hours.
♪
They had lived the years of their lives.
Some of them, 70, 65 years of their lives,
praying and waking up every day,
and I believe praying for freedom.
♪
And the day came.
It's really something to be on this river
where this historic battle took place.
I remember seeing a newspaper from the time
where they focused on a former slave
who came back as a Union soldier
on one of the boats that took part in the raid.
[cannon firing]
What exactly happened here?
Imagine two gunboats came up this very river.
♪
This Federal Army raid
had been carefully planned in advance.
300 Union soldiers set out to liberate
their brothers and sisters who were enslaved here.
♪
The liberators would have been a very unique sight,
including escaped slaves from this area
that became Union soldiers.
♪
There are lots of heroes in that regiment
and they don't get their due at all.
It took a lot of will to decide to cross that red line.
♪
They didn't have a military background.
They were field hands.
They worked these rice fields.
Some of them had only been in the army for a few weeks.
So, these are brave people?
These are brave people.
♪
The all-Black regiment disembarked from the gunboats.
And when it was time to strike, began torching the plantations
and helping the slaves make their break for freedom.
You have plumes of smoke that could be seen
from the railroad.
And they didn't know what was going on.
People are streaming to the gun boat.
♪
The African American who were on the edges of the river banks
realize what was happening,
that this was their moment, that they should run,
that they should take that one chance at freedom
and go for it.
♪
In the midst of the chaos, escaped slaves would be greeted
by another shocking sight,
the small but powerful African American woman,
Harriet Tubman.
♪
Harriet had escaped from slavery
and became a famed conductor on the Underground Railroad.
She risked her life numerous times to lead escaped slaves
on a dangerous journey to freedom,
as far north as Canada.
As the people were coming to get onto the boat,
here she was calming them down,
guiding them, helping them in all the confusion.
Now, your great-great-grandfather,
he was one of those soldiers on this river
fighting to liberate other African American.
Yeah. Yeah. It's an amazing feeling.
His name is Private Shedrick Manego.
He was in Company E. I'm super proud of him.
He made the decision to follow through
and be a soldier and drill and work hard
and be a liberator.
♪
In this raid, in one fell swoop,
they freed over 700 people.
♪
If we want to find the freedom ship
that ferried runaway slaves on the final leg
of the Underground Railroad all the way to Canada,
first, we have to go to the archives.
I just hope we can find something
that actually locks in.
Yeah.
♪
For the past few weeks, John has been searching
for records of 19th century commercial ships
that would sail across the Great Lakes
while secretly ferrying enslaved Africans.
♪
- Hi, John. - You made it?
- It's so good to see you. - Yes indeed.
Good to see you again. Yeah. So, what do you have?
I had a whole bunch of files and I was going through.
The problem ends up being when you look at
a Underground Railroad boat or a freedom boat,
you got to figure out what happened to the boat.
Some of them were abandoned, some of them burned,
and what I'm just trying to do is narrow it down
so that what we come up with
is a boat that's still out there.
And then I came across this schooner
which is a possibility.
What's it called?
It's called "The Schooner Home."
It was a vessel coming from Buffalo,
to Sandusky.
However it ran
for a number of months
unaccounted for.
♪
What does that mean?
Well, when we look at the papers here from the port of Buffalo,
they have arrivals and clearances
to the custom house.
Right now, there's kind of a gap in its history.
If it doesn't show up in the port for say six months,
where was it going?
Do you suspect that because it was missing
that maybe it was smuggling fugitive Africans?
That's a good possibility.
I mean, knowing that Sandusky was full of abolitionists.
So, are you saying there's a possibility "The Home"
was going to Canada?
You would say that, yes.
♪
What do we know about the captain of "The Home?"
♪
Well, it was James Nugent who was the captain.
He was an immigrant from Ireland.
He lived in Sandusky.
And it's a good possibility that he was an abolitionist,
simply because of the people
+he was running around with, in Sandusky.
So, we needed to find out more about the captain then.
So, why don't you check out Captain Nugent,
and I'll check out the missing months of "The Home's" routes.
Sounds like a plan.
♪
Let's take it from the top.
[woman singing]
[all singing] ♪ We shall gain the victory
Founded 150 years ago,
the Jubilee Singers were among the first
to introduce African American music
to a general audience.
[woman singing]
[all singing] ♪ We shall gain the victory
[singing continues]
We're here to find out the use of song in resistance,
the use of song in liberation
and what it meant and how it worked.
[PAUL] Then we are referring to songs that people
like Harriet Tubman used
during the Underground Railroad system.
♪
They had different meanings to the songs,
songs with hidden meanings or songs with double meanings
or Coded song.
For example, the song "Wade in the Water."
♪ Wade in the water
♪ God's gonna trouble the water ♪
Who would think that just saying "wade in the water"
did not mean anything more than "go to the water."
But there was a reason they would use that song
to give direction to the slaves
as they travel to the north.
Because most times as they were running away,
they were being chased by dogs.
So, the message was go through the water
and then the dogs would not be able to follow you.
♪ God's gonna trouble the water ♪
Harriet Tubman used these songs
to communicate with the slaves.
For example, the song "Go Down, Moses."
♪ Let my people go
♪ Oppressed so hard they could not stand ♪
♪ Let my people go
Moses, of course, was the one who was sent
to lead the Israelites out of captivity.
So, Harriet Tubman, whenever she sang this song,
was saying to the people,
"If you want to go into freedom, you can go with me."
♪ Oh, Pharaoh
The church played a key role when enslaved African American
struggled for freedom.
They had figured out ways to sing songs
that are actually, you know, very revolutionary
in their meanings.
Right.
So, are we able to identify where these songs came from?
We know that while the slaves were on the plantations...
- Mm-hmm - They would also go to
church sometimes with their slave masters.
Really?
And I'm sure that's where they learned
much of the stories from the Bible...
- Mm-hmm - But were able to relate
the stories to their own situations,
and therefore created the songs.
Well, you know, the Old Testament
in a way is a playbook for liberation,
trying to bring an explanation
to living in an absurd situation.
Because you got to admit the last 400 years here
had been quite absurd if your skin is brown.
So, you've always been trying to make sense out of it
in your own way.
We're Jim Crow babies.
So, when we grew up in Chattanooga
during the civil rights movement,
we began to hear the protest songs,
the freedom singers.
There was a Black folk singing tradition also
that we were exposed to.
Yeah, because we were musicians
and we had different kinds of experiences
that a lot of our contemporaries didn't have.
A lot of those protest songs that we used then
were basically spirituals.
" I ain't gonna let nobody turn me around."
Can you sing that for me?
♪ I ain't gonna let nobody turn me around. ♪
♪ Turn me around, turn me around. ♪
♪ I ain't gonna let nobody turn me around. ♪
♪ I'm gonna keep on walkin'
♪ Keep on talkin'
♪ Walking out to Freedom Lane.
♪
We're headed to Sandusky,
which was a major center of abolition,
to find out if James Nugent, captain of "The Home"
was involved in ferrying runaway slaves to freedom.
♪
On the way, we're stopping in Cleveland
to see firsthand one of the shelters
that was used by freedom seekers in the Underground Railroad.
♪
[KELLY] The building that we're standing in was built in 1838.
And from its beginning, it's kind of had this
social justice lean.
St. John's was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
In that time, the Underground Railroad
had code names to describe the people and the places
that they were traveling to keep secret,
but also so that they would know where they were going next.
And Cleveland was known as Station Hope.
That was because if you made it to Station Hope,
you most likely would make it to freedom.
And where we think people hid, is actually the bell tower.
And that at the time
was the tallest structure in the city,
and so people who were fleeing slavery
would hide in the bell tower
and they could look out to two places,
the Cuyahoga River,
and to Lake Erie, bodies of water.
People could catch onto boats and then be taken to Lake Erie,
where they would then hop on ships.
♪
So, now where we're going to go is up to the tower
where people hid.
And it's really dusty and rickety,
so just be careful.
Just make sure one person on the stairs at a time.
♪
So, as you enter, this space,
this is the main frame of the tower.
And as you can see, it's structurally being held up
by some of these metal pieces, but also it weaves its way up.
Ladders, a landing, and another ladder,
and it just keeps going up.
Can we go up there and take a look?
Yes.
How about Kinga and I go up and then Kramer,
since you're just a bit taller and stronger than us
maybe hanging out here and we'll come back down?
- Is that okay? - That's fine.
But I prefer for you to stay around the edges.
More solid? Okay.
♪
Often when people traveled the Underground Railroad
it was at dawn or dusk.
You didn't travel during the day
because people would see you.
Step on the outside of the stairs,
not in the center.
It's nice to have a friend who's a former firefighter.
Oh, watch your head.
There was a system in place to help these people
make it to safety.
And so with light signals from the river or the lake,
people would know when it was safe to come down
from the tower and either run or walk to get on a boat,
or they would sometimes be put in the back
of horse-drawn carriages and then covered up.
♪
So, those are the rooms.
Kramer, there are these two rooms right here
on either side and they just go deep in
and it's really dark, you actually can't see inside.
But this is probably where people would have hidden.
- Yes. - Is that right?
There's another one just in front of us,
and another one up above.
I would love to go around and take a look in that room.
Yeah. Let's at least take a very safe and quick peek.
I think this is a no step.
Be careful. Hold on to the rails, not the stairs.
We're just going to go around here and take a look.
♪
[distant birds chirping]
Oh, my gosh, that's amazing.
Kramer, can you hear me?
Yeah.
So, one of these rooms with a little bit of light
is where you can imagine one, two, three people
could have stayed.
This is your last leg of the journey,
and you're in this church steeple.
And at night you would probably come out
and look through these windows here because the signal
would have been a lantern, so you would have been able
to see it at night.
People who were staying here waiting for that signal,
that signal might've come from "The Home."
[dog barking in the distance]
♪
We've made it to Sandusky, a small town on Lake Erie
where 170 years ago, James Nugent,
captain of "The Home"
would regularly load his boat with cargo
and head out to other destinations
on the Great Lakes.
But did he also ferry runaway slaves
all the way to freedom?
We're here to find out.
[gulls squawking]
[boat toots]
[YVETTE] Sandusky was the great northern depot
and was also named Station Hope,
because of the strong possibility
of reaching Canada from here
without being captured.
For a lot of people, this was the final location
before they went to Canada.
Right.
♪
There are several houses that are still standing
where active abolitionists would provide a shelter,
food, clothing, a place to rest
before it was time to come down to the waterfront
and board the ships.
The whole area, and maybe even the whole state,
there were active abolitionists.
There were a number of attorneys and judges
that were in cahoots as abolitionists.
[JUDGE] All rise.
♪
There was the Honorable Rush R. Sloane.
♪
One time, there were seven runaways in a group together.
They were hounded by slave catchers
and Rush Sloane asked for documentation
of these dark-skinned people.
Documentation meaning that the slave catchers
could prove that these were escaped slaves.
Right.
The slave catchers didn't have documentation.
So, Rush Sloane said,
"There's no reason for you to be held here."
So, a group of citizens rushed the runaways
to the waterfront for transport to Canada.
While the slave catchers are still in the courtroom,
they rushed them out.
- Yes. - Wow.
So, what happened to Sloane because of that?
Well, later on he was charged
with aiding and abetting the runaways to get away
was found guilty,
was charged $3,000.
That was so much money back in the day.
$3,000.
There were court costs that were $1,000,
and then the rest of it was
equal the value of the runaways.
So, he had to pay for the property
that he let escape.
- Yes. - Wow.
And he was able to pay that?
The other abolitionists in town contributed
towards the amount that he was charged.
Rush R. Sloane was a prominent figure
in the Underground Railroad Movement
in Sandusky.
Our research speaks of a Captain Nugent
who was involved here in Sandusky.
Do you have any records or any knowledge
about a Captain Nugent?
Yes.
♪
What are we looking at here?
This is the testimony
of the type of person that Nugent was.
Whose testimony is this?
The mayor of Clyde.
Clyde is a small town near Sandusky?
Yes.
The mayor of Clyde witnessed this liberation
of the seven slaves by Rush Sloane.
"That party of fugitive slaves was carried to Canada,"
"concealed in a hold of a sailing vessel"
"by a lake captain"
"then and now a robust Democrat in politics,"
"a man with a conscience and a heart,"
"resident of one of the lake cities."
So, he was there, he witnessed their release
and he knows that there was a captain
that took him away on a boat.
Yes.
"But my lips are sealed for the lifetime of my informant."
He was sworn to secrecy not to tell the name
of the captain that took the seven slaves to Canada.
I'm sorry. Could you look at this?
Here they list the names of the slaves that were--
"Liberated. The seven."
Liberated and escape. Yeah.
"George Bracken, Emily Bracken, Ellen Bracken--"
Family.
"Robert Pritt, Matilda Pritt and Eliza Pritt"
"and Thomas Pritt."
So, two families.
So, we have the names of the people who were freed.
Oh, my gosh.
The mayor says his lips are sealed
about the identity of the captain
who took them to Canada.
So, how do you know it's Nugent?
Look what Rush R. Sloane had to say about Captain Nugent.
"These fugitives were at the same night received"
"from the small boat the next day by Captain James Nugent,"
"a noble man now dead, then living at Sandusky"
"and secreted on board the vessel"
"he commanded these seven, and on the second day after"
"were safely landed in Canada."
♪
We have documented proof now
that he was involved as an abolitionist,
that he ferried these seven Africans
away to Canada.
So, not only did he ferry these seven slaves in 1854
when this happened,
it's safe to assume then that in 1848,
when those missing months happened on "The Home",
he was also ferrying fugitives.
- That's perfect sense. - Makes sense.
Yvette, you did it.
You did it.
[both laughing]
♪
Ghana, the Gold Coast,
was at the center of the slave trade
for hundreds of years.
In this exact spot, over a century ago,
an Ashanti warrior queen engaged in a mystical ceremony
to prepare herself for battle.
♪
The Ashanti leader known as Queen Mother,
came here to strengthen herself and her fighters
before the last rebellion against the British occupiers.
You need spiritual armor.
Precisely.
♪
So, a European would have come and just seen dance.
Africans were looking at this and getting life lessons.
Yes.
[singing in native language]
♪
[all shouting]
Queen Mother and her warriors
managed to fend off the might of the British
for a whole year
before the rebellion was crushed.
♪
Queen Mother wasn't alone.
Practically all revolutionaries in places such as Haiti,
Jamaica and Grenada
turned to the religion of their ancestors
to find the courage to fight, to endure,
to struggle for freedom.
♪
- Beautiful here. - Yeah.
How are you?
Glad to see you here on the shores of Lake Ontario.
- Hi, guys. - So, good to see you.
Good to see you again.
The reason why we're here is actually out in the slip.
That beautiful ship.
Yeah.
More or less a recreation of "The Home."
That's amazing.
We actually found out that Captain Nugent
was an abolitionist.
100%.
We even have the names of seven people
that he brought to Canada.
[boat horn blowing]
So, the "Empire Sandy" is similar to "The Home."
It's a schooner sailing the Great Lakes.
So, it gives us a visual of what it was
that was actually taking place.
That's right.
And you've done your research on Captain Nugent,
and I also got my part of the story.
This is one of the areas that "The Home"
would have sailed through.
And the reason for that is something that we found
in the Sandusky newspaper.
♪
This is a 1848 copy
of The Sandusky Clarion,
which is the year that Captain Nugent
was on "The Home."
Down here, it says-
- Port of Sandusky. - Port of Sandusky, right.
Arrived June 8th, "Schooner Home," Nugent.
So, it went to Sandusky.
You need to read a little bit more.
Nugent, Oswego.
So, what does this mean, John?
It was coming back from Oswego, New York.
Okay.
So, it's coming from New York to Sandusky, Ohio.
That's right.
But in order to get to Oswego,
it had to go through the Welland Canal,
which is in Canada.
The Welland Canal had been enlarged
and it allowed "The Home" to go through it.
This is the period of time "The Home" was missing.
The four-month gap, everyone assumed it
was just going back and forth to Buffalo.
I'd like to show you now how Captain Nugent
most probably took the runaways to freedom.
We're just coming off of Lake Ontario.
- So, we're in Canada? - Yes. Both sides are Canada.
[ship horn blowing]
We're at one of the oldest sections lock 27.
In one month, they'll put about 140 boats through it.
So, when you come here, you're 200 feet above Lake Ontario,
and you have to drop down 27 locks.
So, it's time-intensive.
And this must have been the moment of truth
for the fugitives.
The boat is tied there.
It comes to a certain level.
You could walk off without too much of a problem.
♪
At what point during the course of this journey,
do I finally get a chance to exhale and say,
"I've made it?"
Just down the ways is the village of St. Catharines,
and it had a number of fugitives
who were there and had made a settlement.
There were also a number of people there
who were involved with their welfare.
One of the men was Mr. Merritt,
who's the one who actually designed the Welland Canal.
- Really? - Oh, wow.
So, these are all people who were part
of the Fugitive Aid Society.
That's incredible.
So, you ended up in St. Catharines,
you built your life there.
There are a number of people who settled there also.
-One of them was Harriet Tubman. -Mm-hmm
She brought a number of people from the south
to St. Catharines to live.
So, "The Home" went through this lock?
I would say so.
All the evidence points to "The Home" being a freedom boat.
Let's dive in and pay our respects.
♪
As it turns out in 1858,
several years after Captain Nugent
ferried runaways to Canada,
"The Home" sunk during a collision on Lake Michigan.
[indistinct conversation]
In 1981, "The Home" was discovered and Catalogued
among the hundreds of wrecks in Lake Michigan.
This dive will be the first time
that a Great Lake's wreck
can be said with certainty
to be a freedom boat.
[all talking over each other]
On this foggy and windy day,
it's going to be hard to make a dive to 175 feet
to a shipwreck.
Go on and have a drop line.
The deeper you go, you're committed to the water
for a longer period of time.
So, we have to watch top side conditions
more carefully on deeper dives.
So, as the deep divers will be going down with tri mix gases
and special gear, Josh and I will be free diving from above
to watch out for any signals of distress.
Red bag comes up, red bag means something has kind of changed,
but we're in control of the situation.
If the yellow bag comes up,
that means we actually need your assistance.
♪
After we surfaced, I tried to envision
this space and this time,
trying to figure out what somebody would be feeling
having traveled 333, 400, 500 miles on foot
to get to this final point.
♪
People carrying their kids for hundreds of miles
to make it to a point like Sandusky in hiding,
waiting for an opportunity to get on a boat,
to get this far.
♪
And still the possibility that somebody can come
and snatch me
and drag me all the way back into slavery.
♪
And then the rare instance
of numbers of them who decided
I'm going back to help others get free
and doing it a number of times.
♪
Some of them going back and getting caught
and killed.
♪
But the drive for freedom is universal.
♪
Their sacrifice, their drive
is what made it possible
for me to be here.
♪
Got it.
♪
Our team tracked down this poem
by a gentleman by the name of Joshua Simpson.
He was at the forefront
of gathering the slaves here
and ferrying them over
to Canada for freedom.
"I'm on my way to Canada, that cold and distant land."
"The dire effects of slavery, I can no longer stand."
"Farewell, old master,"
"don't come after me."
"I'm on my way to Canada, where colored men are free."
[water lapping against the boat]
Okay.
[water lapping against the boat]
Thank you.