Enslaved (2020) s01e05 Episode Script
Resistance
1
♪
[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 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]
[water lapping against the boat]
Thank you.
oakislandtk
♪
[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 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]
[water lapping against the boat]
Thank you.
oakislandtk