01x05 - Resistance

[bunniefuu]

♪

[SAM] The ocean floor

still holds traces

of the transatlantic

sl*ve trade,

but it also tells another story.

♪

There were hundreds

of sl*ve 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 k*ll 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 sl*ves 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 sl*ve 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 g*ns 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 g*nshots]

People were rising up.

People were fighting back.

People were making plans.

[scattered g*nshots]

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 sl*ve ship.

We're diving to find

something that's pretty much

the exact opposite,

ships of freedom.

These were ships that

took runaway sl*ves

from America into Canada,

from sl*very 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 sl*ve

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 sl*ve 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?

sl*ve 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 sh**t

at the captives

if there was a rebellion.

The people who were designing

ships to use in the sl*ve 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 k*ll 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 sl*ve,

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 sl*ves

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 sl*ves,

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 sl*ves

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 sl*ves

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 sl*ves 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 w*r.

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 w*r.

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 sl*ve

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 sl*ves

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 sl*ves

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 g*n 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 sl*ves would be greeted

by another shocking sight,

the small but powerful

African American woman,

Harriet Tubman.

♪

Harriet had escaped from sl*very

and became a famed conductor

on the Underground Railroad.

She risked her life numerous

times to lead escaped sl*ves

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 sl*ves

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 sl*ves

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 sl*ves.

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 sl*ves

were on the plantations

- Mm-hmm - They would also go to

church sometimes with their

sl*ve 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 sl*ves 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 sl*very

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 sl*ves

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 sl*ve catchers

and Rush Sloane asked

for documentation

of these dark-skinned people.

Documentation meaning

that the sl*ve catchers

could prove that these

were escaped sl*ves.

Right.

The sl*ve 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 sl*ve 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 sl*ves

by Rush Sloane.

"That party of fugitive sl*ves

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 sl*ves to Canada.

I'm sorry.

Could you look at this?

Here they list the names

of the sl*ves 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 sl*ves 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 sl*ve 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 sl*very.

♪

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 k*lled.

♪

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 sl*ves 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 sl*very,

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.