"Previously on Underground..." "I think I found it, the way to the promised land." "It's-it's a song." "The map may be hidden in the words." "It's gonna be the slaves left behind that's gonna" " pay the price." " Don't act like you care about nobody else." "You only care about yourself." "That's why I don't mean to be left behind." "Mama, you ever think about another life?" "Oh, yes." "I've imagined thousands of different lives." "You think you're better than me, don't you?" "We have to go." "Now." "We gotta run!" "Run!" "I've never had a runaway before." "If my paddy rollers haven't retrieved them by nightfall, consider yourself hired." "Do whatever it takes to get her free!" "These are papers, for you and your daughter." "You can't trust nothing that woman says." "There gonna be catchers on their heel every step of the way." "There's a price on your head, dead or alive." "Calling y'all the Macon 7!" "I killed her." "I protect my babies." "We suspect there might be someone aiding runaways in the area." "Hyah!" "Slave catchers are flooding the area, looking for the high reward." "There's nothing stopping me from putting you on the block." "What do you want?" "I want to be counted!" "It's our hands that built this country." "Noah the one that brought us the freedom." "But he gave up his freedom for me." "Wherever he is, he's still fighting." "All that's behind you now." "No, it ain't." "I'm going back." ""Sol..." ""d..." ""Sol... di..." "Sol..." ""Soldier." Soldier." "Soldier." "Move!" "Towards the water!" "Go!" "Hold!" "Make another move, and I'll shoot your head clean off." "I could say the same." "My arms are mighty tired, and I aim to end this quick." "It's gonna be over quick you don't shut your mouth, put them weapons down." "Ain't nobody got to die today." "Not over no hurt nigger." "Ain't that right?" "Gonna be more trouble than it's worth, trying to get a man who can't walk to collect a reward." "Anybody can see his ankle broken." "So how's about we make a sale right here?" "I's give you five dollars for him." "Same as y'all would've got, and five for your hassle." "We got three runaways, you want to pay us for one?" "You ain't got nothin' yet." "Ten dollars or two bullets, it's your choice." "I ain't scared of no nigger bitches." "And ain't nobody scared of you." "My daddy taught me how to carve up a tree real good." "I imagine your skin would be a bit easier to handle." "Now, you heard me say my arms is tired." "So what's it gonna be?" "every injury includes a violation of a right." "This is as true today as it was when Justice Wilson said it 60 years ago." "Justice Wilson also stated that property is a right... and lawful power, which a person has to a thing." "Objection." "How does this apply to a murder case?" "The crime is not murder." "It is theft." "The accused is, himself, stolen property, above all, and must be extradited south." " For the love of God, John, you're an abolitionist." " My political beliefs do not trump my vow to uphold the law." "And they certainly don't trump my familial ties, Mr. Crane." "Mr. Hawkes, the accused is a runaway who..." "Your Honor, under the Fugitive Slave Act, the accused is still the property of Suzanna Macon." "What he did in Ohio, while... reprehensible... is secondary to the property crime." "Therefore, Noah Macon" " must be returned to Georgia." " Objection, Your Honor!" "Overruled." "His argument is not without merit." "However, I'm well aware of the stall tactics that you're referencing, Mr. Crane." "Mr. Hawkes, I woke up to yet another stack of papers..." "would you care to summarize?" "My client fears that while we wrestle over semantics in this courtroom, what is rightfully hers is rotting away." "He's been in there the north side of five months, Your Honor." "Who knows what kind of state he's in?" "Chow time!" "We do it tomorrow or we can't do it at all." "The guards got guns." "That's why we're gonna get our own weapons." " Maybe we hold back a bit." " We can't." "Two days' time, they gonna roll us back to Tennessee." "Maybe massa won't punish." "Remember what happened to Renwick?" "Of course I remember Renwick." "We ain't gonna end up like him." "It's my fault they caught us." "Sometimes we just get unlucky." "Bad luck's been going around." "Pastor Grant, the Grimké sisters." "Everybody's running into patrols across the river." "They ain't follow us." "Moses paid 'em off." " Really?" " Mm-hmm." "You'd be surprised how many times it's worked." "They just want the money, not the trouble." "Some of them want the trouble, too." "Remember that." "It's feeling mighty cold in here." "I'll get some more wood on the fire." "Harriet gonna want to keep movin'." " He can't travel." " You might have to stay here, too." "We had a good day in court today." "I think the judge is seriously considering my motion to send him back south." " When?" " Could be soon." "They've granted my request to... inspect Suzanna's property." "But there's gonna be guards with us the whole time." "I haven't seen him in so long." "I know." "What if this don't go our way?" "Then I'll keep filing motions, prolong the process, keep stalling this trial till we figure out a way to get him back." "Got a lot of night left." "With a bit of rest." "Food in their bellies." "We ought to push on." "Well, Valentine's break is bad." "Infection might be settling in." "I figured as much." "I told Miss Elizabeth to wire ahead, let 'em know the cargo gonna be light." "Mary can get him some medicine from the hospital, help him heal faster." "I suppose that means you stayin' behind, too." "John say they may move Noah soon." "This plan of yours is dangerous." "Everything we do is dangerous." "There's a world of difference between you stealing away with somebody in the night and stealing them from an armed chain gang headed south." "The Lord sent you to me to get your family back." "You ain't gonna be able to do that you-you dead or in chains." "Noah is my family." "He gave up his freedom for Boo and me." "He ain't blood." "And hearts change." "I know John hurt you, but this ain't like when you went back for him." "Road you got ahead of you, 600 miles" "Deep South." "Stealing yours from the hell you barely escaped, then 600 miles back through enemy territory." "You did it with your kin." "Maryland ain't Georgia." "You got to keep your head straight." "This rescue gonna be the toughest thing you ever done." "And Noah gonna be able to help." "I'll get him back." "Together, we're gonna get the rest of my family." "All up now!" "All up now!" "All up now!" "All up now!" "All up now!" "Hair and nails are a good indication of health." "Teeth, as well." "No rot." "That's a good sign." "Turn around." "Lift up your feet." "Higher." " No sores." " If the judgment falls my client's way, she'd like him on the first transport back to Georgia." "Well, there's something heading that way tomorrow evening, hauling back two runaways from Tennessee." "Back around." "Take a look at his eyes." " What am I supposed to be seeing?" " Not a speck of yellow." "No jaundice." "He's in good shape." "Yeah, I'd like to keep it that way." "You're not taking him across the Red Creek bridge, are you?" "That thing looks like a devil's grin." "It's falling apart." "I just put 'em in chains and on the wagon." "Want to know the route, talk to the marshals." "I will." "And it gets cold down by the riverbank when the sun sets." "Could you scare him up a blanket?" "All right, let's wrap up here." "My niece is down from Canada." "She's excited to reunite with the rest of her family." "Papers?" "Yes, sir." "What's your name?" "Mary." "Excuse me, you with the broom?" "That bed has just been vacated." "Attend to the dirty sheets, please." "Hold him down." "Hold him down." "Hold him down." "Nurse?" "Take my keys." "And get the ether from the supply closet." "Steady... steady." "Oh!" "Sorry." "Hello." "Can I help you with something?" "I'm Elizabeth Hawkes." "Uh, a-a friend of a friend sent me?" "Frederick Douglass." "Lucretia Mott." "Uh," "Cassius..." "Marcellus Clay." "I always have trouble pronouncing that last one, as well." "I've heard so much about you and your husband from Mr. Still's letters." "It's nice to finally put a face with the name." "I'm Georgia." "For a moment there, I thought I was in the wrong place." "Mr. Still told me the code." "Uh, red cloth for a meeting, the address is on the card..." "And the number of eggs denotes the time." "You got it right." "When you didn't respond to the eggs..." "Well, I've just never had anyone bring them back before, much less as a snack." " Oh." " It was thoughtful, and we could always use the food around here." "Come on, I'll introduce you to the other ladies." "Arthur believes the rednecks have gotten word of the rally and intend to make their presence known." "I welcome their attendance." "Perhaps they will learn something." " Amen." " Of course, there'll be law enforcement there to keep the peace." "We'll need 'em if those boys from Lawrence stampede into town in time." "Well, let us all pray they don't." "Ladies, meet Elizabeth." "This is Anne," "Abigail, Sally, and the one eating all my award-winning jam is her" " sister Emily." " It really is fantastic jam." "Hence the award." "So, did everyone bring their kits?" "Oh, yes." "Not exactly what you expected?" "I didn't know what to expect, but I did think there would be some sewing." "Oh, we do that, too." "Occasionally." "Welcome to the sewing circle." "Hey, chow time!" "You got any idea what you just done?" "That plan of yours was gonna get you killed." "How the hell you know that?" "That gate made of cast iron." "Keyhole on the other side." "By the time you pushed it over, that guard on the other side of the wall would've shot you down." "What guard?" "You see that ash on that window?" "He come by every day right after the slop brought in." "He share one of them cigarettes with some of the others." "Probably the guy that opens that gate." "Y'all notice he smell like smoke?" "Hmm?" "Now, maybe if you made your move at dinnertime, you'd've got past the gate." "But you'd've ran right into the marshal's office across the street." "How you know where the marshal office is?" "You ever hear of the Macon 7?" "All the same, why you care we get ourselves kilt?" "I don't." "But if you try and you fail, you might compromise my escape." "Now, this time tomorrow, all three of us gonna be put on a transport wagon." "We gonna be pulled across the Ohio River, past this rickety bridge, looks like a devil's grin." "As soon as the sun sets, the wagon gonna be stopped." " Stopped by what?" " Spooked horse, fallen tree." "It don't matter." "We just need to be ready when my friends arrive." "If you trust me, by this time tomorrow, we gonna all be free men." "Line it up!" "Master Roe wants that western patch cleared." "How long you figure that's gonna take?" "I say about three weeks." "Well, I want it in four days!" "Got to trench and drench it in time for the harvest." "A-A lot of trees in that stretch there, sir." "Twice as much as we been doin', and we a man down..." " What's that, boy?" " Sorry, sir." "You keep your mouth shut!" "The humiliation suffered by those in bondage is real." "It is raw." "No one is talking about it honestly." "We all just read a narrative about a man so badly beaten he can no longer lift his arms." "Father Henson's Story." "Have you come across it, Elizabeth?" "I-I can't say that I have." "Well, it's a harrowing read, but a necessary tool for the cause." "How so?" "Do you know what struck the final blow against the British slave trade?" "It was an article." ""Description of a Slave Ship."" "The intolerable image it conjured in the mind is what turned the tide overseas." "Well, the best literature has a way of forcing yourself into a stranger's skin." "It demands empathy." " Most-most people don't read." " That's true." " They don't." " And to be honest, even those who do, given the choice, might be reticent to steep themselves in the horrors of slavery." "You make a good point." "It may be time to move past just the catalog of violence that most narratives portray." "But the fact remains, the silence around slavery is an extension of its brutality." "And we aim to put the issue into every Northern home that refuses to see what's really happening." "Well, the narratives raise awareness." "And the rallies." "And the bake sales to raise funds, and abolitionist prints like The Liberator." "All forms of disruption." "I have to believe that a true understanding of what the Southern Negroes are enduring will incite good people to action." "All rise!" "You may be seated." "Both the defense and the prosecution have made some compelling arguments." "While the murder charges should be treated with the utmost respect," "Mr. Hawkes is technically correct." "By federal law, the accused should be taken back to Georgia." "However, this is my courtroom," " and I can't abide it." " Your Honor," " the Fugitive Slave Act is very clear..." " The accused shot a U.S. marshal on my side of the river, after he and his Macon 7 ran up the Eastern Seaboard, terrorizing law-abiding citizens." "I'd like to file a motion." "No, we're well past motions, Mr. Hawkes." "I will not allow you to waste any more of this court's time." "As an agent of Ohio law..." "Quiet, Mr. Hawkes, or I will find you in contempt." "As an agent of Ohio law, I am allowed to file a motion!" "As the highest agent of Ohio law," "I am allowed to deny said motion." "This is a miscarriage, and you know it, Your Honor!" "Consider yourself in contempt." "Bailiffs." "You cannot ignore federal law!" "I just did." "This court has ruled." "The accused is guilty of all charges, and he will hang for what he did." "You says, "Trust me."" "You says you can make the law work in our favor!" "How was I supposed to know that this judge would just bypass the entire legal system?" "You open your eyes." "This happen all the time." "In the North, in the South, it don't matter." "Rules don't apply to black folk." "We have to figure out a way to save Noah." "Gettin' him sent back ain't work." "You were right." "Ain't no way to steal him till he outside of them walls." "We'd have to get him at the gallows." "A hanging in the middle of the city would draw a crowd." "We would need one hell of a distraction." "Maybe Mary can help us out there." "He is gonna be guarded until the moment he is handed to the executioner on that platform." "We'd have no chance to get him until that noose was around his neck." "I know some of the workers who built that gallows." "Maybe they can help." "And once we have him, then we have to escape with him." "And there's only three of us." "Against every marshal in that square." "There are more than three of us." "We're part of a movement now." "We can do this." "If any part of this go wrong, we all end up in jail." "Well, then we're all going to jail." "Yes, and my brother, he kept on about Canada." "Sayin' there's this town over there." "All black folk." " Hmm." " Yeah, I thought it was too good to be true." "So now I know." "I'm gonna get over there, I'm gonna find it." "I heard Canada's a big place." "Ah, that's all right." "See, my brother, he a big man." "Well, I'm gonna get on a boat." "Cross that big wide ocean." "Oh, what's over there?" "A place called France." "Gonna get me a look at that Mona Lisa." "You seen them giant murals massa have brought in every year." " Mm-hmm." " He brag one 500 years old." "But over there, they 1,000 years old." "I want to see something that old." "How about you?" "Where you going when you free?" "It don't matter." "Ain't about a place no more." "Let us prosper and be fruitful in the presence of all good spirits." " Amen." " Yes, yes." "Guide us to be faithful and true." "Give we wisdom for whatever path we want." "Hey!" "Your union strengthen all we." "The love we honor make all we heart gladdy." "For truth." "For truth, for truth..." "Where you at?" "Nowhere." "And this is the one that Tom gave you." "He told me to save it for a special occasion." "Last time I talked to him." "Which... felt like the last time." "Even though I didn't know it would be." "He was your brother." "It's okay to miss him." "I tried to draw a line between family and politics." "But when he hung that man," "Rosalee's brother, his daughter's brother..." "You couldn't do it anymore." "And why should I?" "Tom didn't." "The system was built with the best of intentions, but those in power have found ways to corrupt it." "Rosalee's right." "I cannot keep my eyes closed anymore." "John." "Seeing a problem isn't enough." "The system isn't going anywhere." "We have to figure out a way to disrupt it." "I think that I have." "There is an open seat on the Court of Commons." "We go down to the courthouse and we put my name on the ballot." "And then I can start making rulings that'll help the cause." "What do you think?" "I think it's brilliant." "The goddamn ferryman dumped the crates in the marsh east of the indigo plantation." "You got to go fish 'em out." "Make sure they ain't taking' too much of that." "Once I trade 'em, I ain't got no control over what they do with 'em." "Figure it out." "I want 'em docile, not dead." "You see, this here arrangement, boy, don't make us friends." "You think about that next time you feel like talking out of turn in my fields." "Old buckra." "Sick of rice." "You don't got to eat it." "So this your life now?" "Today the men that stand before you are guilty of the unspeakable." "They are proven to be a danger to peace in the state of Ohio, and society at large." "Only they can know their truth." "Only they can pay for their crimes." "It is our duty to meet their crimes with retribution." "Citizens will rest at peace tonight knowing that these murderers have faced true justice and punishment for their actions." "Noah Macon, you have been found guilty as charged of the crime of murder, of which the penalty is death by hanging." "Do you have any last words?" "Saul Freeman as stipulated by the laws of the state of Ohio." "Which speaks as clearly today as it did in the days of old." "...deserves decisive answers." "Noah, get in, get in!" " Noah!" "Come on!" " Let's go, come on!" "Hyah!" "They're coming!" "How'd they get on us so fast?" "They don't look like marshals." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Noah!" "Death been followin' you all around." "And you thought you could beat it." "Sacrificed your dignity, me, even your children at the altar of your privilege." "But that the white in you." "The black ain't never gonna stop hunting' you." "Tried to forget, and look what forgetting' got you." "Little girl ran away." "Little boy don't belong to you no more." "And Sam... well... he swung from the porch of that big house you thought you owned." "You sad, pretty, little thing." "I bet you told yourself you was being tough." "All them pieces you cut out to keep on." "But just 'cause you survived, don't make you strong." "If you was, you'd just do it." "It's what you want, ain't it?" "Ever since you hung massa." "When you gave up." "Just do it." "'Cause this, you sittin' around waitin' for him to do it for you, to beat you to death... this pitiful!" "Just kill yourself." "John?" "John!" "Where's Noah?" "They took him." "The marshals?" "Those men were not marshals." "John Hawkes!"