01x01 - Cultures Left Behind

[bunniefuu]

SAM: Out on the ocean,

looking for sunken sl*ve ships.

♪

[crowd screaming, chain

rattling, whipping noise]

When I began this journey,

I couldn't imagine

that I would be going

back to my roots

[crowd chanting

in native language]

or that I would be

telling the story

of the transatlantic

sl*ve trade.

AFUA: In the governor's bedroom,

there's a trap door in the floor

and it leads into

the women's dungeon,

and he would just have free

access to these women and girls.

SAM: The case of the sl*ves

was the same as if horses

had been thrown overboard.

SIMCHA: Let me get

this straight.

This is currency created

to buy a human being.

TERRY: One human being.

♪

KRAMER: Hey, Sam,

how you doing, buddy?

- Morning!

- Morning!

I've teamed up with DWP,

Diving With a Purpose.

What a morning, out

here in the high seas.

Ready to get wet, man?

Some of the best underwater

investigators in the world.

MAN: Chris, you ready?

JOSH: All right, thanks

for being here, friend.

- I appreciate it.

- All right, bro.

♪

More than two million of

our ancestors died at sea.

These divers are dedicated

to bring to light

their forgotten story.

KRAMER: England

was involved in it.

Portugal was involved in it.

The Africans were

involved in it.

It's a burial ground

and a crime scene.

ALANNAH: We are raising

the voices of people

who didn't have a voice,

whose voices were also enslaved.

MELODY: We have to

teach our young people

where they came from.

If we don't do it,

no one will, ever.

We only talk about

the ships that made it.

We never talk about

the ones that didn't.

Bring another part of

the history of this world

into focus, because people

just don't talk about it.

What was really going

on with the sl*ve trade?

♪

[sound effect -

metal chain clicking]

♪

For me, it all started

at my cousin Hilda's.

[song by Nina Simone plays]

I wish I knew how

It would feel to be free

I wish I could break

all the chains holding me ♪

Hilda's been able to do

something uncommon

for most African Americans:

that I should say,

say 'em loud ♪

trace our lineage back

to the days of sl*very.

For the whole round

world to hear ♪

Hey!

♪

Come on. What you got in here?

HILDA: Who is that

young man there?

That's me.

All right. Beautiful picture.

Sam, I want you to look at some

of your history that you have

never seen, and we

want you to know it.

When did you have

time to do all this?

Do you know that

most of the information

in here is by word of mouth?

We followed our ancestry back

from Zoe, LaTanya and Sam.

Then we have Elizabeth and Roy.

Yup.

And we have Aunt Pearl

and Uncle Edgar,

who is Sam's grandfather.

And then we go to Lillie,

who is the mother to Edgar.

And this is Lillie.

Mm-hmm. That's a

picture of Lillie.

And Miles is the father to

Edgar, Uncle Edgar's daddy.

So this is Miles.

Miles Montgomery. That's him.

- Wow.

- Mm-hmm.

And then parents

here, Arthur Branham.

- Arthur was born into sl*very.

- Mm-hmm.

So he was three

when sl*very ended.

Three years old

when sl*very ended.

Three. That's right.

And this is his mother, Matilda.

- Who was a sl*ve.

- Yes, that's right. Mm-hmm.

- Owned by the Branhams?

- Yes.

So they just took

their last name.

- Mm-hmm.

- They just took their names.

ARTHUR: Yes. They

owned a lot of sl*ves.

They were wealthy.

A Judge Branham is

the one who fathered Arthur.

You can see his

name up there, Joel Branham.

Mm-hmm.

So as far as we know,

we're able to trace our ancestry

back to when our

relatives were enslaved.

♪

I did my DNA ancestry.

And my ancestors

came from Gabon.

And they were from the Benga

tribe and I want to see what

that means in terms of who I am

and where I came from.

So I would like to know more

about how my people lived,

how that played into the

kind of person that I am.

Just trying to

connect to my roots.

And the best place to do that

is here, my ancestral home.

♪

MINISTER NGUEÉMA:

Hi Sam! How are you doing?

I am fine, how are you?

- Welcome to Gabon.

- Thank you.

♪

Let's go.

[crowd singing in native

language, drums]

Oh, my God. This is great.

[singing and music continues]

[indistinct crowd chatter]

[Benga people singing]

[Benga people singing]

A lot of energy!

Let's go!

[singing and music continues]

Okay, thank you.

[singing and music continues]

MINISTER WHITE:

They will initiate you.

It's not like being

jumped into a g*ng, is it?

- ENENGE: No. A brotherhood.

- It's going to be all right?

- You'll be all right.

- All right, fine.

You will be a real Benga.

[laughing] Anticipation

builds

[laughter]

[both speaking French]

♪

More than 12 million

Africans were enslaved

and trafficked from dozens

of outposts established

along the coast of Africa.

The transatlantic sl*ve trade

existed for well over

300 years and involved

more than 45,000 voyages.

Most ships made it. Many didn't.

In the early 1800s, even after

most countries banned the trade,

ill*gal trafficking

was continuing.

My ancestors could have

easily ended up on the ill*gal

Spanish slaver, the "Guerrero."

♪

COREY: The "Guerrero" was

sailing to Cuba with almost

600 African people on board.

They sailed past the Bahamas.

Stationed there was a British

navy ship, the "Nimble."

The "Nimble" was there to

intercept ill*gal sl*ve ships.

They tried to stop "Guerrero."

"Guerrero" took off.

They got into a chase, they got

into a g*n battle.

Eventually, night fell.

Both ships slammed into

the Florida reef

somewhere off Key Largo.

So beneath these waters now are

the puzzle pieces that are gonna

help us reconstruct the story of

these two shipwrecks.

And that's really

become my passion.

I've invited the

DWP team to join me

in the search

for the "Guerrero."

KINGA: Hi, Corey!

Hey, guys. How are you?

You guys ready to do a

little bit of research?

We are!

JOSH: So what is this

story about the "Guerrero"

and why do you think

it's the "Guerrero"?

You know, the story

of "Guerrero" is really

the story of two ships:

"Guerrero," the sl*ve ship, and

then the British navy schooner

that was chasing it.

And they got into a g*n battle

and they both smashed

into the reef.

♪

The "Nimble" ran aground and was

able to float itself off

the reef by jettisoning

iron ballasts and cannonballs.

But the sl*ve ship "Guerrero"

crashed into the reef

with such force that it sank.

41 of the c*ptive Africans

on board died.

The "Nimble's" crew said

they could hear the screams

crossing two miles of ocean.

It had been their duty to save

the people on the "Guerrero,"

but instead they

had accidentally

chased them to their doom.

We're going to

find the "Guerrero."

There could be all kinds

of artifacts out there

that are specific

to a sl*ve ship.

So here I have some

things to show you guys.

ALL: Oh!

These are all pieces recovered

from the other wrecks.

So what's this guy?

A tooth extractor.

I remember in school,

we were taught some sl*ves

wouldn't eat in protest.

They would remove the teeth

so that they could shove food

- Right.

- in their mouth.

Just visualizing that is

absolutely chilling.

That my ancestor could've had

their teeth pulled

to make them eat because

they needed to be strong

in order to be bought.

[gag reflex sound]

And here is the real

telltale artifact.

The essence of the sl*ve

trade: a set of shackles.

These were the iron

restraints designed

to hold people two by two.

Wrists?

Wrists and generally ankles.

You slid this 'U' onto

somebody's ankle.

You took this other 'U', put it

on another person's ankle,

and then those people

were joined together.

It was shackled to two

people 'cause it makes it

way more effective to

keep people from running.

Right. If you're, you know,

hobbled

to somebody else,

you can't swim. You can't run.

- Right.

- You can't move.

It was horrible.

So, I know how I'm

feeling holding something

like this, but this is, um,

it's just a different feeling.

It's hard to articulate.

To just have these

in my hand it just,

it just hits a different note.

I guess you could just see

in my face maybe it's just

No, absolutely.

And there's no denying

the cruelty of it when

you look at those things

- Yeah.

- and you know what they did.

♪

This initiation ceremony

you were telling me about today,

what does it actually

really mean?

For you, specifically, it means

a reintegration

into Benga society.

Your ancestor was

taken from this area,

and you have been separated

from your Benga people

for at least 250 years.

Your coming back, having

identified yourself as a Benga,

through DNA, was something

that was a shock

to the Benga community because

of all the millions of Africans

that left Africa,

to have a person in America

be identified as

Benga was phenomenal.

So to be integrated

into Benga society,

you need to acquire

certain materials.

One is the indigenous torch,

[speaks Benga],

a flyswatter, [speaks Benga],

a cane, and a white cloth.

Okay. So, I gotta go out

and get those things.

Yes, you do.

Okay. All right.

♪

All right. So we're going to

the fabric store first.

What's the fabric for?

The white cloth when

we're communing

with the ancestors, white is

the color of the ancestors

because they have white bones.

And white is the color of sperm.

Oh, Okay. I'm trying

to figure that out.

I wanna grab that.

Oh, yeah which

is the future generations.

Because to procreate, sperm

and the ovum come together.

Mm-hmm.

And the white waves,

in traditional Benga,

the land of the living

and the land of the dead

is separated by a great river.

Mm-hmm.

And so, when you see

the white waves breaking,

it's some of the ancestors

crossing the great river

- Mm-hmm.

- from the land of the dead

to the land of the living.

Okay. So, does this white cloth

have to be a specific size or

Well, it has to be able

to wrap around your body.

Wrap around the body.

Yeah, yeah.

♪

So plain white or fancy white?

What are we talking about?

Plain white, plain

white, about

Plain as in how plain?

A pure white,

because you're going

to be joining the ancestors.

I know. See, this

would be my preference.

But I gotta get

something for a purpose.

- Great.

- About 4 meters.

Show you this.

- I think that's it.

- Ah.

Yeah, that's That's better.

That That that's

gonna be kickin' it.

Looks good. Looks good to me.

You just know how much

that is by looking at it?

You don't have to

measure anything

You just start cutting.

Yes, she says she's

been doing it a long time.

Yeah, I believe it.

This is cool.

- Yeah, cool.

- WOMAN: Very nice.

- Très bien!

- Très bien!

- Right.

- In Benga, "Bwamo."

Bwamo.

♪

My aunt noticed that

you walk like a Benga man,

because walking in the sand

- Mm-hmm.

have a certain gait that,

you know, like you follow.

She said "it's a typical Benga

man walking on the sand,"

which is a good thing.

- Is that what she said?

- Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Well, there you have it.

Stuff we don't know that we

have, but we got it.

[horns honking]

What else do I need?

A fly swatter,

a torch and a cane.

These guys should

have all three.

They're instrument makers,

sculptors, real craftsmen.

♪

They're the experts in

traditional ceremonies,

when the living and the

ancestors come together.

♪

All right, okay

might find what

I'm looking for in here.

- Bonjour.

- FISTON: Bonjour.

[speaks French]

That's something I need, right?

Yes. That's the [speaks Benga],

the fly swatter.

Ah.

[speaks French]

Merci.

[laughs]

- [speaks Benga]

- [repeats phrase]

[laughter]

Is that the torch?

[in French]

So he's going to perform

a little ceremony here.

♪

[speaks French]

Been blessed.

Blessed. That's right.

[speaks French]

Merci. Beautiful!

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, so I've got the fly

swatter a torch.

So what else do I need?

A cane, right?

A cane

[speaks French]

Now I saw

the canes out there.

Didn't touch me.

But when I came in here,

sitting here watching you play,

and I went, "Aw! Ahhh."

[speaks French]

Okay.

Stayed like

that from the get-go.

I love it the way it is.

Yeah, okay.

And when you came in,

boom, it got to you.

Mm-hmm. Sittin' here

waiting for me then.

It sure is.

[laughter]

[Fiston playing music]

I feel a kinship.

[Fiston playing and singing]

Listening to the music,

I couldn't help thinking that

when millions of Africans went

down with the sl*ve ships,

our rich culture also

went down with them.

[music continues]

And what was lost at sea has

been forgotten for centuries.

♪

ALANNAH: We're eager to

head out and find a sunken

sl*ve ship called

the "Guerrero."

- Hello!

- Kramer!

Kramer!

Senior diver Kramer Wimberley

joins the team.

Now you get to come

play with us!

Yes. I missed you guys.

Corey fills us in on his plan

I think really in order

to find the "Guerrero,"

we're going to have to find

evidence of the "Nimble."

"Nimble" essentially

left a trail.

♪

"Nimble" had run up

onto the reef.

They needed to lighten

their load.

They were able to free

themselves by throwing over

iron ballast blocks and

cannonballs.

They got anchored up, and then

their anchor line parted.

They drifted onto the reef again

and they threw over more

cannonballs, ballasts,

more shot, and a small cannon.

♪

So we're looking for things

that the "Nimble" threw off.

Exactly. Those are our clues.

So the biggest clue we have in

the historical record

in all of this is the position

of the "Nimble" the morning

after the ships hit the reef.

The "Nimble" was towed

to safety off the reef,

and the captain took

his bearings.

And we know where that spot

was. That was right here.

So we know that the "Nimble"

was anchored here after,

but we don't actually know

where it hit the reef, right?

Right. Exactly.

So what we have to do is account

for things like the wind

and the weather at that time

and which direction the ships

were sailing when they hit.

When you take in all the

historical evidence,

it makes it pretty clear

that those two ships hit

at either here at Area "A,"

Area "B" or Area "C."

If we can find evidence of the

"Nimble" in these areas,

I think that's gonna

help us pinpoint

the location of the "Guerrero,"

and of the c*ptive

Africans who perished there.

Today these areas are separated.

You have the park

and the sanctuary.

Yeah, Kramer, if you

want to go up to Area "A,"

the northernmost spot,

up in Biscayne National Park and

do some exploring with the folks

from the Biscayne team,

and the rest of us,

we'll go down to Areas "B"

and "C" and take a look around

and see what's there.

- All right.

- Okay.

♪

JOSHUA MORANO: Time in

the water will be now.

Time out will be noon.

Out. Copy.

To the untrained eye,

a shipwreck may look like

nothing more than a coral reef.

And so there are tiny little

puzzle pieces on these wrecks

that we as archaeologists look

for specifically that help us

date wrecks and help us

identify maybe nationality,

who made them,

how large they are,

what they were utilized for.

So any artifact

we find of British design

could be from the "Nimble."

And any artifact

of Spanish design,

from the sl*ve ship, "Guerrero."

♪

♪

If the "Nimble" 's crew tossed

over any large metal objects

in this area, our detector

should pick it up.

[sound detector crackling]

[sound detector pinging]

It looks like we've

found something big.

♪

Gabon's Minister of

Environment, Lee White,

is taking me to

Loango National Park,

a place he says is

relevant to my ancestry.

Where the rainforest comes

right smack down to the ocean.

♪

What percentage

of Gabon is rainforest?

- LEE: Gabon is 88%.

- 88?

- forest.

- Wow.

So, it's the second

most forested

country on the planet.

- Wow!

- Yeah.

Gabon is about 10%

of the African rainforest,

but we have over

60% of the forest

elephants today,

which shows how Gabon

has been so well preserved.

[laughs]

Today we have what

we call "eco-guards"

what you'd call "rangers,"

trained to go out and patrol

the forests and fight

against the poachers.

- Literally?

- Literally.

We're having g*n battles

about once a month.

Wow. And what are they after?

- Ivory.

- Wow.

Just like in the sl*ve days,

people came here for sl*ves,

for ivory, and for ebony.

It's still the same thing.

The elephant ivory is worth

$2000 a kilo

on the black market.

[helicopter noise over voice]

In this beautiful,

now protected park,

there hides a terrible history.

Lee says there's an area we can

prove was once used to confine

close to a million

enslaved Africans

before they were shipped

across the Atlantic.

♪

Lee's arranged to put down here,

then he says we'll head toward

the river mouth to uncover

evidence showing just how

massive the sl*ve trade was.

♪

- Okay.

- Merci! Wow.

There we go, welcome

to Loango National Park.

Loango National Park.

The ocean's there, right?

The ocean's that way.

So, end of the road

for whoever walked or rowed down

the river over here right?

- Or walked.

For three months

to get here from-

Three months of walking or?

- Carrying a big 40-kilo tusk

- Yeah.

or a chunk of ebony.

Right. And then getting chained

into a boat

somewhere over there.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

♪

So 200, 250 years ago,

what was this area called?

Well, this was

the Kingdom of Loango

and by the late 18th century,

it was responsible

for roughly half

of all the sl*ve transports

from West Africa.

Trade routes were opened up from

here deep into the interior

to exploit the riches

of the rainforest.

Most importantly, sadly,

African men, women and children.

We don't bring tourists

this way not much.

This is Ntchorongove Village.

Yup, I used to be

barefoot on roads like this.

You know it kind of feels like

when I was a kid, in Georgia,

walking in dirt like

this and hanging out.

You know, there were shacks,

stuff like this in the area

where I lived, so it's kind of,

it feels very familiar.

When I looked

at the clothesline,

which is actually what

attracted me down here,

when I saw those clothes

hanging on the line.

I was like

"Oh, that looks familiar."

I just walked down.

It just felt like, you know,

it felt like a piece

of my childhood.

So, doesn't feel, doesn't

feel strange at all.

Yeah, familiar.

It touches something inside me.

♪

LEE: We're headed to Iguela.

It's a massive lagoon

over 85 square miles

with lots of little islands.

Over a million sl*ves were

shipped from this region

and trafficked directly

to the Americas.

♪

[speaks French]

♪

Most of the sl*ves

from here went to Brazil.

Mm-hmm.

But they found the record

of the first known sl*ve

from Gabon who went

to South Carolina.

It was 1720.

No kidding.

He could have been on the same

boat as my ancestors.

[animal grunting]

There's an elephant right there.

Where?

Isn't that an elephant

in there, right there?

- Yeah, that

- Amazing.

It looks like it's on its own.

It's probably a lone male.

[elephant trumpeting]

So in terms of the amount

of ivory being transported

on this river,

what was the number

of elephants lost at that time?

Probably hundreds of

thousands of elephants.

The whole coastal Gabon

and Congo was basically devoid

of elephants by

the time they finished.

By the time they finished.

And they severely depleted

the human population as well.

They were just

another commodity.

Moved down these rivers

all the way to the coast

where they would be sold off.

Shackled and shipped.

Yeah. There were hundreds

of sl*ve boats coming down here.

[speaks French]

And so, literally, there

are millions of oysters,

and they've built up the level

of these islands 4 meters.

So what just looks like earth,

is actually millions and

millions of oyster shells piled

upon each other. That was the

only food that the c*ptive

peoples had to eat

when they were here.

That's right, your last

meal before you get on a boat

to be sailed off to Brazil.

So that really

is an oyster bank.

They're razor-sharp.

Until Richard came, nobody

thought that's a relic

of the sl*ve trade.

And then you start to think

about how many people

it's acres worth.

Covering how much space?

That's two and a half

thousand acres.

Two and a half thousand acres?

Okay that's

a that's ridiculous.

- Of Of oysters.

- Of oysters, like that?

That deep.

It's just thousands

and thousands

and thousands of poor people.

[boat motor rumbling]

So this is where they would

first see the big ships, right?

So right out there?

Yeah, they might well

see the ships offshore.

For those who were taken

from the interior,

it would've been the first time

they'd ever seen the ocean.

It must've been terrifying.

The first place you

would've seen the big ships

waiting to be filled

with people.

♪

Once again, we look

at the disparate reality

of the sl*ve trade.

I mean, the beauty

of what this is,

just looking at it, this turns

to like a real gateway to hell

for the people who were

seeing it for the last time.

Yeah, today it's

tropical paradise

but 200 years ago,

hell on earth.

♪

From here, the next stop

could've been places like

Brazil, Cuba, the U.S

or the bottom of the ocean.

♪

So we're diving and

we're looking for what Corey

believes could be a trail of

evidence tossed overboard

by the British crew

of the ship, the "Nimble,"

which was in hot pursuit

of the Spanish sl*ve ship,

the "Guerrero."

[men grunting]

So we're looking for cannons,

cannonballs, anchors,

pretty much anything that could

be indicative of a 19th century

British Navy ship.

♪

So this is a protected

area, and we're not allowed

to recover anything

from the bottom.

So by taking

high-resolution imagery,

Corey can bring that back to

his lab and render 3D images

so we can all study

and observe it safely.

♪

[filtered voice]

Yeah, look at that.

What do you think?

Oh, wow, this is a big block

of iron ballast.

It's about 3 feet long.

The 3D will really allow us

to get some wonderful details.

So here is a ballast.

It was used in the bottom

of the ship to make the ship

bottom heavy, so when

the sails filled with wind,

the ship didn't tip over.

It fits exactly

with what we know

the "Nimble" threw overboard.

♪

But all ships have

ballasts onboard,

so we can't say for sure that

this is from the "Nimble."

We're going to have to

keep looking for a needle

in a 200-year-old haystack.

♪

[boat motor rumbling]

We had a big hit on

the metal detector in this area.

There's only one way to figure

out what it is dredging.

♪

[filtered voice]

Water entering that tube

at such a high velocity

will create suction.

It's the equivalent

of a giant vacuum.

♪

When we first saw it,

I didn't know what it was.

♪

But as we kept on working,

it just kept on getting

bigger and bigger.

And I knew at that point it was

going to be something good.

[filtered voice] It's a g*n,

which is a very exciting find.

What it is, is a carronade

A small cannon used

by the British.

Now right here you see

a very fine taper.

This is called the nozzle,

and it's particularly dateable.

They didn't have these on most

carronades before 1815.

So this particular g*n

probably dates

from about the 1815 to 1830.

It's a single piece of a puzzle.

But this is a very

big piece to that puzzle.

♪

The carronade

is about 200 years old.

And it fits the time

of the "Nimble."

So I think we're on the right

track to finding the "Guerrero."

♪

[children laughing]

The Benga people here in Gabon

have called me

a "lost son returned."

And so, as part of being

welcomed back into the tribe,

it's customary that

I meet the clan elders.

[speak in native language]

Ah, how are you, sir?

The leaders representing

23 Benga clans.

[Benga people singing

in native language]

And then, the man

in charge of it all.

Today, I'm meeting

the Benga king.

[singing continues]

[speaks in native language]

[singing continues]

[speaks in native language]

"Tell our brother

that there is much joy

and happiness on this day."

There is much joy

and happiness on this day.

KING:

[speaks in native language]

- To receive him.

- My heart is full.

[speak in native language]

[speak in native language]

[laughs]

[speak in native language]

[bell ringing]

[chant in native language]

[crowd cheering]

[Benga people singing]

♪

We do know that the "Nimble"

actually threw

a small cannon over,

called a carronade,

to help lighten its load once

it had hit one of the reefs.

So we're adding

the discovery of the ballast

to the carronade that

Kramer and Joshua discovered

less than two miles away.

So really we just need to keep

compiling that evidence.

[filtered voice] Oh, my God,

that's the anchor.

Amongst all this turtle grass,

it just really stands out.

♪

You can see this anchor

is set into the ground.

One fluke is completely

buried, one sticks up.

Somebody was actively using

this when they lost it.

Now it's kind of hard to say

for sure if this is indeed

The "Nimble" 's anchor,

but I'll say this,

it's the right size for what

the "Nimble" would have carried,

it's the right design

for the time period,

and it's in exactly

the right location.

- Oh, my God.

- Whoa.

[laughter]

Isn't that awesome?

And "Nimble" lost two anchors

One that matches

perfectly with this.

[filtered voice]

This anchor, I think

is an important part of evidence

for the story of

the "Guerrero" and "Nimble."

Really matches closely with

the evidence that we have.

It's really something.

Really wonderful to see this.

This anchor, along with the

ballast and the carronade,

really shows that

the evidence is piling up.

It all points to the hazardous

line the "Nimble" took

on the high seas chase for

the sl*ve ship "Guerrero."

♪

The ship logs from the "Nimble"

note that the crew

threw over iron shot

and cannonballs.

So, uh, pretty specific stuff.

And I think, you know, if we can

see that kind of material,

we're hot on the trail.

[filtered voice]

Look, the copper nail

just sitting here.

It's a good find, but not

what we're looking for.

♪

[filtered voice] Oh, wow.

Yeah, look at that.

This is a little hard to see

with all the growth on it.

But what we have here

are two cannonballs.

You can see one here

and one here,

and they're all fused together,

and they look like

a miniature reef here.

Oh!

Look at that.

And now we're

starting to find them

everywhere down here.

[filtred voice] Wow!

Another iron cannonball,

sitting on the reef.

♪

It's amazing.

There's just stuff everywhere.

♪

This fits our scenario

of the "Nimble" throwing over

lots of iron cannonballs.

When you combine all these

iron cannonballs with

the iron ballast, it just fits

the historical record perfectly.

♪

So many cannonballs.

Huge cannonballs.

I bet we saw at least

12 of them.

Productive dive!

♪

Gosh, if this is the actual

site of, you know,

the "Nimble" and the "Guerrero"

is around here somewhere then

I think we can find it.

♪

[birds chirping]

♪

[animal screeching]

♪

Right on the borders of

the sacred village

where their kings are

enthroned are the forests

the Benga believe contain

ancestral spirits.

♪

♪

The king has invited me

here to witness a ceremony

that's incredibly important

in their oral tradition.

♪

It takes the better part of a

day because members of the tribe

re-enact the Benga's entire

migration history

from their early days in

the Sahara, to these

tribal battles in the dense

interior forests.

[chants in native language]

And finally their victorious

arrival at the Atlantic coast.

[continues chanting]

[speaks in native language]

[sing in native language]

This is how the Benga

pass on their story

to the new generations

and now to me,

a "lost son returned."

[chant in native language]

This is the rich culture

that was severed

from my ancestors when

the European slavers tore them

from these coastal forests.

[chanting continues]

I guess a lot of people

would be very emotional

about it, but I absorb it

in another way:

as validation of being part of

a group of party people,

or warriors that know how

to roll with the punches.

So, I count myself

as being from, you know,

a tribe of survivors.

[singing continues]

[birds chirping,

animal squawking]

♪

We got a good start.

We're on the right track

trying to follow the trail

of the artifacts of

the "Nimble,"

and it looks like

our efforts are paying off.

I think today, uh,

we're gonna find

some things from the "Guerrero."

The carronade we believe could

be Nimble's was discovered here.

We found the jettisoned ballast

and the cannonballs here.

And the anchor was

discovered here.

We're connecting the dots.

These are really looking like

the strike points where "Nimble"

hit the reef while pursuing

the Spanish sl*ve ship,

and considering that,

we could right now be

on top of "Guerrero."

We're looking

for any conclusive evidence

that will tie this location

to the final resting place

of the 41 enslaved.

Diving the site,

it just brings it

closer to reality,

closer to those people

who were m*rder*d here,

who were captured here,

who were tortured here.

The 41 who died here.

♪

♪

A ballast stone,

a lonely ballast stone.

It's just a rock that was

in the bottom of the ship

to make the ship bottom-heavy.

To me it looks like a rock,

is a rock, is a rock.

Well, yeah

Well, you don't really have

big rocks like that.

That's exactly right.

Around here in the Keys,

it's all limestone.

So if anything is a rock

that's not limestone

it was brought in.

- It's, like, way

And if it's underwater,

it probably was brought in

on a ship, and that's

what we're seeing here

Rocks that just don't

fit the natural landscape.

♪

Corey's location mapping

might just be on the money.

I can see something.

[filtered voice]

This looks like an iron knee

or some sort of a brace.

It looks like it's from

the right time period.

Iron braces like this could've

been used to reinforce

the hull structure of

ships like "Guerrero."

Oh, the brace

you were talking about.

Triangular brace.

Certainly it was

part of the ship.

It was used to, you know,

reinforce something.

As I move it around, you know,

you get a really good sense

of the shape of it nestled

in a little pocket

in the hard bottom.

[filtered voice] And next

to that, another piece of iron

A pin that held some

of the ship together.

♪

It's becoming

more and more evident

that we're over a debris field.

♪

And then, there it is.

Our smoking g*n.

This oddly shaped piece of iron

with these two flat heads

It's a bar shot.

The Spanish use?

- Looks to be Spanish, you know.

- Right.

And fits the time, fits

the nationality for "Guerrero,"

and here it is.

This is exactly

what we'd expect to find

on a Spanish ship

like the "Guerrero."

♪

The evidence is there.

It seems like a wreck

definitely was in this area.

It's beautiful and sad

altogether, like,

to be down there

amongst that stuff,

amongst the wreckage.

♪

I feel absolutely

confident that we have found

the wreck of the "Guerrero."

[faint screaming]

This is a gravesite.

Anyone who dives a wreck

like this has to understand that

there's history and people's

stories and people's lives

and people's deaths

associated with that.

[screaming]

So it's a "sombering"

kind of experience.

It's giving voice to people who

don't have a voice anymore,

and that's what this entire

experience has been all about.

♪

I'm humbled.

♪

Centuries after my ancestors

were sold into sl*very,

I've reunited with their tribe.

I count this as

a victory not just mine,

but for all those

that never made it back.

[Benga people chanting]

From day one, the Benga

have welcomed me with open arms,

but today they're

making it official.

[chanting continues]

In a traditional initiation

ceremony that is centuries old,

the tribal elders

are reintegrating me

into Benga society.

[chanting continues]

[metal instrument

clanging rapidly]

I was a lost son that returned,

and I wanted to connect

with them,

and they could feel

that I wanted that.

[chanting continues]

It's like I put a link back in

my chain that was broken.

I repaired it.

[chanting continues]

I am part of this.

This is where I came from.

This is my beginning.

[speaks in native language]

[Benga people chanting]

Given that we already

share Benga DNA,

it kind of makes sense when

the clan leaders tell me

that blowing air into my hands

symbolizes the "breath of life"

that animates my new Benga body.

[chanting continues]

These are some

powerful blessings.

[speaks in native language]

Blessings.

[metal instrument clanging]

[speaks in native language]

[people chanting,

metal instrument clanging]

And this is where the sacred,

ritual items that I collected

earlier come into play.

[speaks in native language]

[indistinct chatter

in native language]

[laughs]

[speaks in native language]

[speaks in native language]

[Benga people chanting]

[chanting continues]

[Benga women ululating]

[sing in native language]

[sing in native language]

[Benga people chanting]

[speaks in native language]

[crowd cheering

in native language]

NINA SIMONE: I wish I knew how

It would feel to be free

I wish I could break

all the chains holding me ♪

I wish I could say all the

things that I should say ♪

Say 'em loud, say 'em clear

For the whole round

world to hear ♪

I wish I could share all

the love that's in my heart ♪

Remove all the bars

that keep ♪