" Previously on Underground..." " I made a plan." "Going back to get Momma and James." "But ain't nothin' ever go as planned." "You can still bite, can't you?" "Everywhere you take me, there's no reflections of us." "It's just rich and white." " How can we get to the Black Rose?" " You got to go through her momma." "She the only thing that girl care about." "It work!" "Ain't gonna be long 'fore he do whatever I want." "Good." "'Cause you gonna use him to get me off this island." "That one right there." ""Mahk."" ""Make."" "You said "A"s sound like "ah."" "It does until it doesn't." "You see that "E" on the end there?" "Changes it." "Why they ain't put it at the beginning, then?" "Daddy, someone's coming." " They got us trapped!" " Hide the papers." "You run as fast as you can." "Go!" "Don't look back." "What do you want from me?" "Trust." "That's how you get people to let their guard down." "And people trust those that look like them more than they trust those that do not." "This scar of yours might throw a few folks off, but..." "I'm sure with your charm, you'll figure out a way around it." "I've noticed that the niggers in my crew tend to think quick on their feet." "On your crew?" "You want me to work for you?" "The thing that makes you an asset to me is also the thing that makes you a liability." "You don't trust me." "Well, you ain't gonna break me." "Didn't think we would." "But I wanted it to be very clear on all the ways in which we could break your girl." "Now that you fully understand my leverage, we can properly negotiate the terms of our partnership." "So how much is she worth to you?" "Whoa." "Well, my goodness." "I never thought I'd see the likes of you again." "Me neither, but it turns out I need your help one more time." "Last time I helped you, I ended up with a shot-up shack and four broken bones, so my answer is a firm no." "I ain't asking this time around." "Oh, that right?" "Things are a little different since you left." "Really?" "How's that?" "For starters, I keep this close, in case of such occurrences." "I brought something along, too." "Oh, yeah?" "What's that?" "He got me." "Welcome to the new order of things." "Master Matthew has taken interest in this part of the island, and Master Matthew has mandated severe punishment for anybody caught with these." "I see any contraband in these quarters again, won't just be the holder of said contraband who's gonna suffer." "No!" "No!" "No!" "Well, it ain't shooting fish in a barrel." "But this new operation of yours, it is?" "Not at all." "Simply a way to profit within the boundaries of the written law." "How many fugitive slaves come in and out of your office every month, Magistrate?" "More than I care to count." "And, as I understand, it's upon you to determine whether the slave matches the description of its owner." "That's correct." "And if you determine that they are free men?" "I release them." " Do you collect a fee?" " Five dollars." "And if you determine that they are slaves?" "I collect ten dollars." "You give us three of those dollars, and we will bring you an endless supply of runaways." "Seven dollars to sell free men into the slave trade." "Well, it's nothing so harsh." "Just a case of misidentification." "It happens." "For example, this girl, real pretty East Indian number... she has no business being here in the States." "But it doesn't matter that her shade of brown is a little different." "I know a few men, deep down, who would pay a pretty penny to put those ruby lips to use." "It's risky." "We capture the wrong Negro, we place our occupation on the line." "There is no such thing as the wrong nigger." "Cato." "This one here, he fancies himself a cosmopolitan sort." "But at the end of the day, he's just like all the others." "Fact, I bet you ten dollars he won't hit one out of five glass pigeons." "Go on, get at it." "Free or not, these niggers are all still dumb as a post." "Oh." "Momma take Miss Suzanna's chamber pots out to start of the field in the morning." "That's closer to the big house than I want to be." "That's the only time I know she gonna be alone to tell her the plan." "What about when she take James out to the quarters at the end of the work day?" "I don't even know if he's staying out there anymore." "Not with Sam gone." "I'm sorry." "I just worried about my family." "Don't worry about it." "Ain't nothing." "The mistress wouldn't let him in the big house, would she?" "Not unless he working." "When he was younger, Momma used to sneak him into the attic to sleep with us in the bed, then sneak him out 'fore Miss Suzanna woke, but one of the house girls told on us." "I think it was Corra." "All right, so, if we approach through the sugar cane, the wash house'll give us some cover." "Get us eyes on the back porch without any on us." "And we wait till she come to us, just like Harriet taught me." "You run 600 miles to win your freedom, and now you headed back?" "But you ain't even touched on the hardest part of this plan." "How in the hell you gonna get your asses back on Macon land?" "Well, that's where you come in." "I know I've been real distant since we get on that train." "For that I'm sorry." "Rose, you got to stop apologizing." "It's all right." "No, it ain't." "I know it." "I just..." "I feel like my heart been broken enough in this past year for three lifetimes." "And I know I ain't the only one that the hurt happened to." "It happened to you, too." "After all this, it gonna be different." "I'm gonna be better, I promise." "Here she come." "Ain't my momma." "That's Sara." " Something wrong." " Well, maybe your momma got her doing some work." "What?" "What did...?" " What did you see?" " She got my momma's keys." " Rose." "Rose." "Rose, Rose," " I got to go." "Where you going?" "I need to know what happened to my momma." "No, no, no, no, we can't just run up on her so close to the big house; we don't know how" " she gonna react." " She go back inside," "I lose my only chance." "Listen to what you just said." "Our only chance, only one we got." "All right, we waste it now, this whole thing is over before it even begins." "We got to be strategic, just like Harriet taught you." " I ain't leaving without my momma." " I'm not saying that." "Just, we push back further into the white." "Nobody be working, so it's easier for us to move." "Think... this... through." "Noah, if we came too late..." "Don't think like that." "We just got to get the new lay of the land." "How we gonna do that?" "I'll sneak into the quarters, find someone to tell us what's been going on around here since we run." "All right, I'll go with you." "Mm-mm, two of us will stick out more." " I ain't just gonna sit here and wait." " You got to." " No, I don't..." " For now." "Rose, look at me." "We got to be patient." "All right?" "The plan's changed, but the end result's the same." "We ain't gon' leave this plantation without your kin." "Trust me." "Ain't nobody so much as glanced this way since the new overseer come through." "And they won't." "Massa took care of that for me." "It ain't enough." "I want him dead just like my baby." " No, you don't." " Yes, I do." "And why you tryin' for save him?" "Hmm?" "He done hurt you, too." "We done hurt each other, and I'm trying to save you." "Killing?" "That's a dark place you don't want to live in." "Trust me." "I know." "And even if you work through Massa Matthew, the blood still going be on your hands." "I don't need massa for this." "I gon' do it; you gon' help me." "Make me a poison." "I know you know how the root work." "I can't let you do this." "Let me?" "You ain't my momma." "Massa done arranged for you to go work on the mainland just like I told him." "But I can also tell him otherwise." "You want off this island, you gon' make me that poison." "We clear?" "We clear." "This your grandpa's land... but it ain't never been home." "You ain't gon' know this life." "Your pappy and me gon' make sure of that." " Corra." " Rosalee." "Why you bring her here?" "She gonna help." "She never helped nobody but herself a day in her life." "And who was you looking out for when you ran?" "She know what happened to your momma." "Is she...?" "Mistress sold her off after massa hung himself." "And James?" "He up in the big house now." "With your momma out the way, mistress done taken him on like her own." "He her favorite now." " We got to get him out of here." " Oh, we will." "And the four of us gonna ride on out and never look back." "Four of us?" "She ain't coming with us." "I ain't made for the fields." "They gon' be the death of me." "At least in the big house," "I had clean clothes, a bed, food." " And you think you gon' last on the run?" " You did." "She know the gossip in the big house and in the quarters." "We gon' need her to come up with a new plan." "Guess you gonna have to get used to me." "I haven't seen you around here before." "I never been." "One of my new... cohorts brought me as an initiation of sorts." "No, thank you." "Normally, I would say congratulations, but... your manner and mood doesn't seem to be that of celebration." "I usually ain't one for joining, but... this time I really don't have a choice." "That sounds like obligation, kind usually go along with a woman." "You married?" "I was... a long time ago." " They're trouble." " Women?" "You can only count on yourself." "That's what I say." "I used to think like that." "Yeah?" "What changed?" "I don't know." "Build them walls." "Keep them high." "That's the only thing that can protect you in this world." "That explains a lot." "What do you mean?" "Well... you built your shoe-cobbling business by yourself." "Got no family." "No, uh, woman, no one to miss you." "No one who's gonna come looking." "You can't do this!" "I got my papers!" "I'm a free man!" "I'm a free man!" "Ain't none of us free." "We got to find a way to talk to James when he out the house." "I've been spending some time down with Harlan in the stables." "And he told me Miss Suzanna gon' buy James a new pony for Christmas." "Any time I got a new present, I played with it right away." "And we catch him tomorrow morning while he out riding, tell him where to meet us after everybody gone to sleep." "He can slip right out the big house." "Can you get us a wagon from your man?" "I'll see what I can do." "Still need to know where my momma at." " I told you, she gone." " What she's saying is we got to find out where they sold her to." "I remember Tom kept this big, green book." "It-it record every slave that ever come and goes." "They only care about our names when they buying, selling or hunting us." "I know that green book." "It ain't in the massa's office no more." "Where is it?" "In the overseer's." "It ain't gon' be easy to find." "Bill's a messy drunk." "Bill's still alive?" "I'll handle Bill." "Now we know what we got to do." "The book, the boy, then we wait." "And tomorrow night, we all gon' be gone from here, for good." "Thank you, massa." "Thank you, massa." "Father, this a surprise." "You don't usually come round here." "You want I get you some tea cake from the house?" "Where that come from?" "Where una get that, there?" "Oh, massa gave it to me." "Not even for Christmas, just 'cause." ""Just 'cause."" "I had to come see for myself, that what they've been saying been true." "Folks been gossiping 'round here, that una been laying with the buckra." "Folks say that the baby una lose belonged to the massa." "After, you ain't never ask me, not once, if I was okay." "All you ask me was "Who the father?"" "You wanted the devil's blood gone, I did that." "The only thing you should be coming around here to say to me is thank you." "No, no..." "I'm not going nowhere." "This is my new home." "You're going." "Listen to me." "Perhaps I should intervene." "Do you love her?" "I..." "I-I don't know." "Well, if you think you might, you should know, she 'bout to do something she gon' regret." "She may look pretty on the surface, but she got some scars that run deep." "You can't live the life we do and not." "What happened to her?" "Just 'cause bad things happen to us, don't mean we got to be bad people." "We got to learn to forgive ourselves, the shame done to us, 'fore we visit it on others." "You care about her, you need to tell her that." "Why don't you just tell her?" "No." "She ain't gonna listen to me." "Got to come from you." "Why?" "You the only person's been good to her lately." "Maybe ever." "Oh, I hate the waiting." "It's the worst part." "With Harriet, it was the lion's share." "Working at that hospital, trying to save up money so that we could go back on the run; and even on the road, it was about hiding, waiting in safe houses." "And with that waiting, there comes the worrying." "Thoughts start creeping in about what could go wrong, what you should've done better." "It ain't like I be looking for the danger." "I know." "But in the thick of it, you know, when it hits, got to make choices in a flash." "At least there ain't that time for second-guessing." "Here." "What is it?" "Christmas present." "Go on, open it." "I remember you had one when we was on the run, for a bit, anyways." "Yeah, I lost it in the brush huts." "Thank you." "Well, you ain't slept since we got off that train." "Corra gonna be back soon." "I want to hear what she has to say about James." "I'll keep an eye out for her." "You go on, get some rest." "Thank you." "Tell me about it." "About what?" "That house you're going build for us." "Where Massa Matthew?" "Out riding that horse of his." "But he don't mind if I'm in here, and you my guest." "Ah." "Miss Clara?" "Any chance you drank Massa's 24?" "You serve it to me?" "Then I ain't drank it." "It's just, I can't seem to find it." "How's that my problem?" "Something that expensive go missing, massa gon' have questions, mean trouble for her." "Then just tell him I drank it." "He ain't gonna care." "Leave us now." "How you feeling?" "I'm fine." "I only ask 'cause I know a lot of people suffering now." "Ones that was on that stuff." "Stuff I done rid the island of." "I'm surviving, thank you." "I guess that no surprise." "I bet you knew I was gonna go after Hicks all along, huh?" "Listen and learn." "That what you taught me." "That how you stay one step ahead." "I learned that lesson good, didn't I?" "Seems like it." "You should be proud." "Look at me." "I doing better than even you did." "I ain't serving Matthew, he practically serving me." "He do treat you more like the mistress of the house." "Maybe one day I will be." "Maybe." "And maybe this feel like freedom to you, but it ain't." "Ain't nothing good come from they world, even if you sitting at the top of it." "Matthew should be back soon." "He always asking me to come ride with him, but I told him," "I ain't gon' let one of them beasts kill me." "He swear it gon' save his life, he ever have to do any fighting." "War coming, he say." "That all he be talking 'bout, worrying 'bout." "I just tune him out, cause them white folks start fighting, ain't nothing ever gonna touch this island." "But he should be worried." "He got some anger in him, but he ain't got it in him to kill a man." "And you do?" "Matthew said something that got me thinking." "That just because bad things happen to us don't mean we got to be bad people." "That sound like good advice." "I know them words come from you." "You warn me off hurting Hicks earlier." "But Matthew also told me he love me." "Those words, they were real." "And I guess I got you to thank for that, too." "I been thinking a lot on forgiveness lately." "And I figure, saying you forgive somebody is just admitting you ain't got no power against they wrongs." "That you can't do nothing but give in, forget, or maybe even kill yourself." "But I got power now, and I do not forgive." "You knew I wanted it." "And you know what it mean to be a mother." "You're right." "And I'm sorry, even though I know it don't mean nothing." "It's a shame I'm gon' take to my grave." "Know that." "That gonna come a lot sooner than you think." "It ain't poison you give me, was it?" "I made hundreds of cocktails serving my old massa." "Never thought to add lemon water and thyme to them." "You owed blood." "But you can't have mine." " What did they do to you?" " Me?" "Look at you." "I overheard some of them talking, about selling me into slavery." " No, that's not gonna happen." " I'm not even American." "They can't do this." "Yes, they can." "But they won't." " I'm handling it." " How?" "I made a deal with the woman who runs this gang." "What kind of deal?" "Cato, I'm here with you." "You need to tell me what's really going on." "If I help her kidnap a number of free black folks to sell into slavery, she'll let us go." "A number?" "30 for me, 30 for you." "You can't do it." "I already started." "With who?" "It doesn't matter." "That's a person you're talking about." "You sent someone into bondage..." "I don't care about that man." "Before today, he didn't even exist." "The only thing I got to do is protect you and me." "And if that means that man's got to suffer, then that's what that means." "You say that as if you don't have a choice." "What am I supposed to do?" "Let-let them sell you?" "Yes." "If it's between me and subjecting 30 people into servitude, then yes." "You don't understand what it's like." "I've been trying to figure out why you... why you left." "Why you came back here when nothing good could come from it." "I see now that this horrible country is your excuse." " Devi..." " You need it to justify all the bad things you do, when the truth is... you're just a bad man." "What time is it?" "It's coming up on midnight." "Corra's supposed to be back right after dinner." "She probably just got held up." "I knew we should've never trusted her." "She sold us down the river." " We don't know that." " Don't you see?" "Turning us in is her ticket back" " to the big house." " Nobody come for us yet." "We got to go right now." "Hey, we ain't going nowhere till you tell me the plan." "I sneak into the big house, get my brother." "You get that book from Bill's." "Then we meet back at the stables." "Yeah." "Yeah, okay." "Shh." "It's me, it's me." "Come on, now, we got to be quick." " Rosalee?" " We got to leave, okay?" "Just get dressed." "Hurry up." " Rosalee, but..." " Come on, now." "Help!" "Help!" "Help!" " Help!" " James, what you doing?" "Shh!" "This man could have his own chapter in my book." "The runaway slave who came to capture 60." "60 ain't the number anymore." "That's right." "My mistake." "It's 59." "It's 28." "She ain't no good." "She sneaky." "And a liar." "And she planning to run." "If you love me, you'll punish her for what she done to me." "She gone." "Pardon me." "What the hell's going on?" "I been imagining this moment in my head for so long." "Hell," "I don't even know if I'm dreaming." "But I remember our last night together." "Every time I wake, I can barely speak." "I sit up... and I think about what went down." "What could have been." "And it always ends in a wish." "A prayer." "Against all odds, that you and I would... see each other again." "But I tell you what." "I never believed in God more than I do right now." "Wait, don't please!" "I'm carrying a child!" "That don't change nothing."