[SLOW GUITAR MUSIC] _
[DOUGLASS] Mm. It's a classic.
[MAN] Just look this way for me.
- [DOUGLASS CLEARS THROAT] - [MAN] Straighten up.
I intend to become the most photographed American
of this century.
You want to know why?
Captured likenesses of individuals
will be the great equalizers of our culture.
In the North, they will display the dignity of the poorest.
- Just have you look over here. - Mm-hmm.
Right that way.
[DOUGLASS CLEARS THROAT]
In the South, there are people,
places and institutions that would rather remain
uncovered, unrevealed, unrealized.
This new invention will portray the Black man's humanity
and slavery's inhumanity.
[BIRD CAWS]
- Let me just... here. - I never smile in my portraits.
I refuse to give the slightest credence
to the Southern caricature of the Negro as happy.
I'm not happy.
[CLEARS THROAT]
I dress well to sit for my portraits
and portray my "majestic wrath," as some have called it.
[LAUGHS SOFTLY]
Honestly?
I am enamored with the device.
And the device is enamored of me.
♪ Come on, children, let's sing about the goodness ♪
♪ Of the Lord, my Lord ♪
♪ Come on, children, let's shout ♪
♪ All about God's rich reward ♪
♪ Guide our footsteps every day ♪
♪ Keeps us in the narrow way ♪
♪ Come on, children, let's sing ♪
♪ About the goodness of the Lord ♪
♪ Yeah, come on, children, let's sing ♪
♪ About the goodness of the Lord, my Lord ♪
♪ Come on, children, let's shout ♪
♪ All about God's rich reward ♪
♪ Guide our footsteps every day ♪
♪ Keeps us in the narrow way ♪
♪ Come on, children, let's sing ♪
♪ Come on, children, let's shout ♪
♪ How the Lord Almighty has brought us out ♪
♪ There's none like him, without a doubt ♪
♪ Come on, children, let's sing ♪
♪ About the goodness of the Lord ♪
[SLOW BANJO MUSIC] _
[COOK] Whoa.
[ONION] Old Man had received a sizeable donation to the cause
from the richest Black woman in America,
Elizabeth A. Gloucester,
and sent me and Cook to Harpers Ferry to start hiving the bees.
Whoa, whoa.
That is a lovely sight to see.
What you doing?
Executing our mission, little lady.
[ONION] Cook was a handsome scoundrel but a chatterbox.
Morning.
Owen worried he'd spill our plans all over Virginia.
- What are you up to over here? - But the Old Man was convinced
- he couldn't hurt God's plan. - My name's Cook.
Said no one'd be inclined to believe a blowhard like him.
- Mary. - Mary. Good morning.
- I weren't so sure. - [MARY LAUGHS]
Seemed maybe the fair half of God's creation
would hear Cook's butter tongue as gospel truth.
[COOK] Hop down, Onion, so pretty Mary here can ride.
She says there's a place up the road that's looking to rent.
Hop down?
Can't she walk?
[MARY] You let your slave sass you such? You ought to belt her.
She forgets her place sometimes,
on account of I'm such a good master.
- Yeah. - [LAUGHS] Yeah.
Mary here was kind enough to offer
to barter with the widow Kennedy
who owns yonder farm.
Eh, she's a tight old cuss,
but I think I can get you a good rent.
As long as it's not too close to the road.
Remember, the Old Man said...
Yeah, I-I'm sure whatever you can negotiate will be just fine.
[SIGHS]
Now, get your Black ass down off that seat,
lest I rip your arm off and beat you with it.
- With your permission, of course. - Of course.
The Old Man ain't gonna like this, Cook.
Didn't the Old Man give you a job?
Why don't you go roust the coloreds like you been tasked?
Mary,
my slave here, uh,
is looking for some coloreds with whom to congregate.
There's coloreds everywhere out and about.
Just throw a stone, and you'll hit one.
[COOK] As I said before,
I'm on a very important mission.
- Oh. - And Onion here
is in need of some coloreds to hive.
Isn't that right, Onion?
Well, there are some high-siddity free Negroes
wandering about town, but they ain't really worth peanuts.
Then there's Colonel Lewis Washington's plantation
- up the road a spell thataway. - Hmm.
Well, what are you waiting for?
Come on. [CLICKS TONGUE]
[HORSE WHINNIES]
[TRAIN HORN BLOWING IN DISTANCE]
_
- Good morning. - [GARDENER] Morning.
What's a scrawny boy dressed up as a girl
doing roaming out here?
I'm looking for some friends.
Well, that's none of my business.
Just go on where you came from.
Well, I'm just looking to get the lay of the land.
It lay before you.
I was wondering
if you knowed anybody who wants to know their letters.
Niggers got no cause to read.
Some do.
I don't know nothing about that.
[COACHMAN] What you doing here?
I said what you doing here, huh?
State your business quick, for you in the thick lard already,
out here prowling Colonel Washington's property
without permission.
Oh, well, I-I's lost.
Uh-huh.
What's the word?
The word?
What song you singing?
Well, I only know Dixie songs, like...
Old Coon Callaway, come on home
What is wrong with you?
Is you a runaway or not?
No. Not exactly.
Them's two answers. Which is it?
- Well... - Is you on the Gospel Train?
I come to town on a wagon.
Not the choo choo train, child.
The Underground Railroad.
[WHISPERS] I's here to hive the bees.
- Hive the what? - The bees.
Look, I come to warn you,
something's about to kick off down at the Ferry.
Why is you dressed like a sissy?
You look mighty queer, child.
If I was to tell you something big's coming,
would you be akin to rousing the hive?
Gathering the colored folks up.
You weeding a bad hoe for satisfaction, talking that way.
If I was your pa, I'd warm those little cakes with a switch
and send you hooting and hollering down the road.
Now, is you with the cause or not?
I's with John Brown.
Old John Brown is dead in Kansas country.
Got a man in church read it right out the newspaper.
Shot dead in the river.
He ain't dead.
John Brown's alive,
and he's coming to free all the slaves.
You got the lying condition.
I ain't lying. I can prove it.
Like I says to the lady before, I knows my letters.
I could read a letter from John Brown proving he's alive.
That lady you was popping off to about reading, she's my wife.
And she ain't with the Gospel Train.
You talking into the ears of the wrong folks,
lying about Old John Brown is coming.
I-I swear 'fore God, he's coming.
What the devil's wrong with you?
To stand there and lie like that in God's hearing?
You'll get every Negro around here throwed in hot water
talking that way.
You best watch your words.
Stay off Colonel Washington's property.
Get!
[SLOW, SOMBER MUSIC]
Excuse me.
[ONION] Like when any new fool arrives in a prison camp,
word spreads fast.
Excuse me, sir.
And the word on me was not kind.
Scatter thee, varmint.
I ain't got nothing to do with you and your kind.
You gonna get us all murdered.
Read this.
"Dear Rufus,
Please give my coachman Jim four ladles and two spoons
from your store, and make sure
he doesn't eat any more store-bought biscuits from you.
He's fat enough as it is.
Signed, Lewis Washington."
[GRUNTING, MUTTERING]
Goddamn that elephant-faced old bugger.
Never done a day's work and feeding me
boiled grits and sour biscuits.
What-what did he expect?
You weren't lying about one thing.
But if what you say is true, if Old John Brown is coming,
why'd he send a sissy to do a man's job?
Ask him yourself when he comes.
John Brown's gonna curdle your cheese
for treating me like a liar.
Either you is lying or you is not.
It's hard to figure Old John Brown, hot as he is,
gonna come here where all these weapons and soldiers is
to fight for the coloreds' freedom.
He a brave man if he living, but he ain't a straight fool.
He putting his head right in the lion's mouth.
Well, the Old Man said to kill a lion,
you chop off its head, not its tail.
_
[SIGHS]
[MUTTERS]
I came to see your master.
Ain't you gonna invite me in?
Master asleep. He don't like to be disturbed.
Uh-huh.
Well, I was looking for someone. Miss Mary.
You seen her round?
I don't know nobody by that name.
You're lying like horse dung laying in the middle of the road.
Now, I heard that she's been hanging around this house
all week with your master.
So I'm gonna ask you again.
Do you know my brother's wife Mary Huffmaster?
No, ma'am. But I'll be sure to tell Mr. Cook you came by.
Hey.
I live right across the road,
and I can see your porch from mine.
And I know you's a liar.
[COOK AND MARY MOANING]
Cook, we is in hot water with the neighbors.
You gots to do your part!
[COOK] I hear you, Onion!
- [MARY MOANING] - Won't be long now.
- Oh! Oh, Mary! - [MARY MOANING]
[COOK] Oh, Mary! Oh!
[COOK AND MARY SHRIEKING]
[COOK] FIRST RULE: Never gamble if you can't afford it.
Luckily, we can.
Another rule,
when playing with a stranger:
Don't walk away from the wash.
Watch the man do it.
That's where all the cheating starts.
Pull some money out of the box.
Ooh! Fun game.
[CHUCKLES]
Seven pull.
Flip.
Negro at the station asking about you today.
About me?
- Mm-hmm. - Why?
I told him I was the captain's man,
but you're the one he wants.
Hmm. Can you bring him here?
No. Said the railman won't come here.
Too dangerous.
The coloreds here are certainly...
distrustful.
Hmm. Will you come with me?
No.
No, he said for you to come alone.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
[STEAM CHUGGING]
_
Take an hour to get the steam up. Maybe two.
That's all the time I got.
You the railman?
Don't matter who I am.
Matter who you is.
I'm a messenger.
So was Jesus, but you didn't see him running around
in a skirt and bloomer panties.
All you need to know is I was sent here by John Brown
to hive the bees.
You come to the wrong town.
Ain't but 1,200 colored here.
And a good number of them is women and children.
The rest?
[LAUGHS]
Shit.
How come Old John Brown didn't go 60 miles east to Baltimore?
Or Washington?
Even the eastern shore of Maryland?
Them colored there read the paper.
They got boats, guns.
Some of them's watermen.
People who can move people.
That would have been sugar in his bowl.
But here?
We's outnumbered, on all sides,
by whites in every county.
There's guns here.
That's why he's coming.
He wants the guns from the armory to arm the colored.
- It's a surprise attack. - Please.
[CHUCKLES] Ain't no surprise.
Never liked the idea from the moment I heard it.
These niggers around here wouldn't know a rifle from a load of greens.
They can't handle nobody's rifle.
Where'd you hear it?
The general.
That's why I'm here.
Is the general coming?
I hope not.
She'll get her head blowed off.
And your captain,
I pray for him every night,
but he gonna go home in pieces
along with whatever colored stupid enough to follow him.
I got a wife and three kids
in bondage here.
I only saved up enough to get one out.
A decision
no man should have to make.
But the general say this will get them all out
free and clear.
How many's in his army?
Last count, 16 or so.
[LAUGHS]
Shit.
That ain't hardly enough for dice.
Give me the rest of the plan.
The attack's in four weeks.
The captain's men will grab the night watchman.
Then you come in.
We need you to deliver slaves from all around to fight.
Where do he expect me to get these slaves from? Africa?
Well, you a big wheel on the Underground, ain't you?
Running one or two souls across the freedom line to Philadelphia
is one thing.
Getting 200 souls out of Baltimore and D.C.,
that's something else.
Well, what do I tell the Old Man?
Pass word to him thusly:
There's hundreds of colored in Baltimore and D.C.
itching for a chance to fight slavery.
We just got to get word fast,
and I know just how to do it.
Some boys in Baltimore run a numbers game.
Negroes both in bondage and free gambles on it.
I plays myself.
Now, if the Old Man could grease the palm of the numbers man,
they'd spread word faster than wildfire.
If there's a penny in it for them...
...that's all they care about.
How much money we talking?
500 ought to do it.
$500?
Pass word to the Old Man.
Let him decide on it.
I'll roust some wagons and horses, too.
I'll be back for your answer next time I come through.
Hold on.
400...
Five.
[INTRIGUING MUSIC]
There's the Old Man's answer.
♪ Ain't going down, ain't going down ♪
♪ Ain't going down ♪
♪ In that lonesome valley ♪
♪ Ain't going down, ain't going down ♪
♪ Ain't going down in that lonesome valley ♪
♪ [MUTTERING SOFTLY] ♪
♪ Jesus ♪
♪ Will save my soul ♪
♪ Jesus will save ♪
♪ My soul ♪
- ♪ Ain't going down ♪ - ♪ Ain't going down ♪
♪ Ain't going down ♪
♪ Ain't going down in that lonesome valley ♪
- ♪ Ain't going down ♪ - ♪ Ain't going down ♪
♪ Ain't going down ♪
♪ Ain't going down... ♪
- [COOK GRUNTING] - Get your hands off me!
You gots to go now!
Is my husband back?
- What's going on? - [KNOCKING ON DOOR]
What's going on? Onion!
♪ Jesus will save my soul ♪
"My peace I give to you.
I do not give the way the world gives.
Let your heart not be troubled.
Do not be afraid."
- John 14. - Hmm.
What a fine young woman you've grown into.
[SNIFFING]
I take it you been shy speaking on our business?
Quiet as a mouse.
This is not the lodging I requested.
It's too far from the Ferry, too close to the road.
There wasn't much to rent, Captain.
It'll suffice.
[SIGHS] The army's coming.
[JOHN JR.] Tell him we're here!
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
[WHISTLING]
[EXHALES]
[GRUNTING]
Thank God I'm free of that coffin.
Just about lost my marbles
- being trapped back there. - It weren't no fun
smelling you for the last 20 miles, neither.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Get in there. Get some water, get some water. All right.
You look different.
- What you mean? - Uglier.
Older. I don't know, it's hard to tell in that dress.
♪ Follow the drinking gourd ♪
♪ Well, the riverbank makes a mighty good road ♪
♪ Dead trees will show you the way ♪
♪ Left foot, peg foot ♪
♪ Carrying on ♪
♪ Follow the drinking gourd ♪
[LAUGHS]
You must be Onion.
My father has told me so much about you.
It's such a pleasure to meet you.
[LAUGHS]
All right, come on.
- You two met? - Yes, Father.
[OWEN] Dry up, boys.
Hey, listen!
Here are the rules.
We stay hiding upstairs during the day.
We do our privy business at night.
You stay out of the front yard at all times.
We got nosy neighbors already.
Now, if somebody comes to the door,
it's me or another Brown who answers.
Now, if you need to holler,
do it during thunder or such.
All right, gentlemen, let's skedaddle.
Grab your belongings. We're staying upstairs.
Upstairs! Let's go. Come on.
I need to sit for a spell.
Rest, Martha.
[SPUTTERING EXHALE]
Oh, good. Onion, help me spread these maps out.
Put it on the table there.
[SIGHS] It seems Mr. Cook deemed it necessary
to canvass the neighbors in an intimate fashion.
Do you think he held his tongue?
More or less, Captain,
- but not to the limit. - [GRUMBLES] Doesn't matter.
Soon, the whole army will be assembled,
the day will arrive, and we'll go to arms.
Give me the full report on how the hiving's going.
It's going, Captain.
I gived the railman the money you gave us
to collect the coloreds.
Oh, praise God, praise God. Oh!
Hiving of the coloreds
is the most important part of our strategy.
They're gonna come by the thousands, no doubt.
- We have to be ready. Oh... - [ANNIE] Good morning, Daddy.
[JOHN] Good morning. Here.
Annie is going to recommence your schooling.
Hmm? Teach you the-the great books, as well as the Bible.
Thought there were no greater books than the Bible.
[LAUGHTER]
Do you hear that?
The angels sing your praise, Onion.
There's also Emerson, Thoreau, Shakespeare.
I brought a little collection.
Oh, wonderful. Wonderful.
Annie's also gonna help
teach you in the ways of feminine hygiene,
as I imagine your time may be upon us.
If it hasn't come already?
[ONION] I'd never met a girl like Annie Brown.
Fact is, up to that point,
I'd never met any woman who weren't
a low-down dirty stinker that drank rotgut
and was trying to swindle a man out of his last two cents.
Annie weren't nothing like that.
No, sir.
We done cleaned everything in this place.
Let's take our ease...
[ANNIE] Not everything.
"Face, feet, pits and privates."
That's what Mama always said.
[LAUGHS] Your mama, she is too much.
I'll fetch some more water.
Oh, no, the tub's full. Annie, you go first.
[ANNIE] Uh... Are you sure, Martha?
Onion, do you want to go first?
- No. - Oh, come on, Onion.
You can go next. I don't like the water too hot.
It's not good for the baby.
[INTRIGUING MUSIC]
[ANNIE SIGHS]
[ANNIE] You have lost your mind.
This water is perfect.
[SIGHS]
You're carrying low.
Must be a girl.
[MARTHA] I don't know.
It's moving so much, I think it's a boy.
If it is, course, Salmon's gonna want to name him John.
But I think "Horace" is a beautiful name.
Mm... Horace is a boy with a big nose.
- [LAUGHING] - Mm, I like "Henry."
[MARTHA] Oh, "Henry" is nice.
What other names do we like?
[ANNIE] Onion.
You should get undressed.
I-I don't need no bath.
Oh, are you a shy thing?
[LAUGHING]
Yes. I is shy.
I appreciate your understanding,
but I have never undressed around white folks,
being colored and all.
Oh, don't be silly.
Get over here. Take your clothes off.
Oh, come on. Don't be a goose.
Take your clothes off. We'll wash you up good.
Get-get over here.
[ANNIE] Onion.
[DOOR CREAKS CLOSED]
[BIRD CAWING]
[SNORING SOFTLY]
[SHEEP BLEATING OUTSIDE]
[GRUNTS]
[BANGING AT DOOR]
Mrs. Huffmaster?
[BANGING AT DOOR]
[SIGHS]
Good morning.
We weren't expecting visitors to call so soon.
You must be Miss Huffmaster.
Onion has told me so much about you.
My name is Annie Morgan, and, uh, it's a pleasure
to make your acquaintance.
All right, I came here to call on Mr. Cook,
but he never seems to be around.
Only just that colored.
So, is he here now?
Uh, I'm afraid I-I haven't seen him.
My... He works for my father as a miner,
and he comes and goes.
Well, I heard that he worked at the tavern at night.
He's got a job as a miner, too?
I suppose he has two jobs.
These are hard times, after all.
Anyways, I'd happily pass along
a message for you if I see him.
Well, he has been running around
with my sister-in-law Mary Huffma...
Oh, dear.
Have you seen him with her?
Well, uh,
uh... no, I ain't caught 'em yet.
But I heard the rumors.
And my brother is due home any day now,
and he will come over here, and he will tear this place apart.
You don't know his temper.
Rumors are the devil's work, Mrs. Huffmaster.
Remember Proverbs:
"The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
They get down into the inner parts of the body
and become foul."
Here. Please,
try to nourish yourself with more than the wicked words of others.
Well, have a good day, Annie.
[SLOW, SOMBER MUSIC]
[ANNIE] Look straight ahead.
[ONION] We spent hours reading the Bible and the great books,
and I come to enjoy our talks.
For even though I was living the lie,
it come to me this way.
Nobody sees the real you.
Nobody knows who you are inside.
You's judged on the outside.
Mulatto, colored, Black... It don't matter.
You just a Negro to the world.
But somehow, sitting there with Annie on that porch,
conversating and looking at stars,
I come to understand that your outer covering
didn't count so much as folks thunk.
[ANNIE] Who do you want to be?
I mean, when all this is over and the Negro is free.
Well...
I enjoys music, and I like to sing,
so maybe
I'll buy a fiddle and sing songs for the rest of my days.
My Henrietta.
How could you not tell me that you can sing?
Well, why, you never ask.
- True. - [CHUCKLES]
Can you sing for me now?
- Something about the Lord. - [SIGHS]
Well...
[CLEARS THROAT]
♪ Michael, row your boat ashore ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
- ♪ Michael Row your boat ashore ♪ - ♪ Row the boat ashore ♪
[BOTH] ♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ River Jordan is chilly and cold ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Chills the body but not the soul ♪
- ♪ Hallelu... [CHUCKLES] ♪ - ♪ Hallelujah ♪
That song is so beautiful,
- it gives me butterflies. - [CHUCKLES]
Hmm.
Can I tell you something?
[WHISPERING] I dream of starting a school.
And teaching poor kids... White and Black...
To learn to read and write.
You could open it with me.
You could teach music.
And I could help teach letters, too.
I knows mine real good, thanks to your brothers.
Onion, would you were a boy, I would marry you.
- [CHUCKLING] - [DOOR CREAKS OPEN]
Onion, come on over here. I need to talk to you.
[SIGHS]
What you think you're doing with Annie Brown?
- Nothing. - Don't look like nothing to me.
You don't know nothing about her.
I knows she's white.
I know she's the captain's daughter.
And I knows you ain't a girl. That's all I need to know.
Mind your own business, Bob.
You watch yourself, Onion.
Your mustache is starting to come in,
and Annie wouldn't be so sweet on you
if she found out what kind of liar you is.
[SLOW, SOMBER MUSIC]
[COOK] Oh, Annie.
I was wondering if you could ans-answer a question.
Of course, I can do my best.
I was just in a prayer...
- Oh, were you? - Do-do you pray?
- I pray. - Of course you do.
You're an angel.
- [ANNIE LAUGHS] - [COOK] Now, I have a question
I was curious about.
[EXHALES]
[ONION] My name is Henry Shackleford.
My name is Frederick Douglass.
"It is easier to build strong children
than repair broken men."
[ONION] I am for you, Rosalind.
And so am I for no woman.
[LIGHT LAUGHTER]
Well, if this be so,
why blame you me to love you?
Why speak you, "Why blame you me to love you?"
[SIGHS] I will say again,
I am for you, Rosalind.
I pray you, no more of this.
'Tis like the howling
of the Irish wolves against the moon!
[LAUGHTER, WHOOPING]
I would love you if I could.
I would marry you if ever I married a woman.
- I would satisfy you. - Oh...
I would content you if what pleases you contents you,
but I'll say it again, I am for no woman.
[KNOCKING AT DOOR]
Shh...
[BANGING AT DOOR]
- [BANGING AT DOOR] - [ANNIE PANTING]
I'll be right out.
Mrs. Huffmaster.
Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we're not prepared for visitors.
- [SHUSHING] - Would you like some lemonade?
- I'll be happy to get you some. - No. Ain't thirsty.
[ANNIE] All right. How may I help you, then?
What exactly are you doing today?
I'm cooking.
Oh. And laundry, too?
That's a lot of shirts hanging on that back line.
Yes, well, my father and brothers
have quite a few shirts,
and they change 'em once or twice a week,
so they keep me busy with the washing.
Horrible, isn't it?
Oh, 'deed it is, especially when one shirt
will last my husband two to three weeks.
What is it your father does again?
My father's a miner.
And a few of his men live and work here, but you know that.
Oh.
And Mr. Cook,
he sure do have a way with the girls, don't he?
Especially since he's romancing my brother's Mary.
He work at the mine, too?
Yes, he does.
Mm-hmm.
So he's working days at the depot,
and then talking big at the tavern
at night at the Ferry.
[MRS. HUFFMASTER AND ANNIE LAUGH]
[ANNIE] I don't know Mr. Cook's business,
but he is a dandy talker, isn't he?
Sometimes I think he keeps his mouth open so much of the day
with his yammering on, he gets flies stuck in his teeth.
- [CLATTERING, STOMPING] - [SHUSHING]
[CREAKING INSIDE HOUSE]
And, uh,
this nigger here, she a slave or free?
This is Henrietta,
and she's like a member of the family.
Mm-hmm.
I am in bondage, missus,
but a happier person in this world, you cannot find.
I didn't ask if you was happy, nigger.
- Yes, ma'am. - But if you is in bondage,
then why is it that you're hanging 'bout the railroad,
trying to roust the niggers up?
Because that's the talk around town about you.
I-I done no such thing.
Is you lying, nigger?
Henrietta is a dear friend of mine, Mrs. Huffmaster,
and I don't appreciate you speaking to her
in such an unkind manner.
Oh. [TAKES DEEP BREATH]
You can talk to your niggers however you like,
but you best get your story straight.
My husband was at the tavern, and he overheard Mr. Cook say
that your papa, he is not a miner or a slave owner at all.
He's an abolitionist.
And that the darkies are planning something big.
So,
your nigger says that you're slave owners.
Mr. Cook says you're not.
Which is it?
You are not privy to our lives, Mrs. Huffmaster,
because it is none of your business.
You got a smart mouth for someone so young.
I would thank you to step off my porch,
and do it quickly, or I'll help you to it.
[HUFFS]
[SIGHS]
My father will be angry with me.
- You did great. - [CHUCKLES]
Thank you, Onion.
[ONION] I was scared she was gonna hug me again.
She was a strong, kind, courageous woman,
and if she pressed up against me again,
she'd have felt the love busting out of me,
and she'd have knowed I was a man.
_
[ONION] Much has been said about the last meeting
between the Old Man and Mr. Douglass.
I've heard many variations.
But, truth be to tell it, there weren't but me
and a handful of grown men there when the whole thing happened.
The Old Man gived Mr. Douglass the whole deal:
The plan, the attack, securing the weapons,
the colored flocking to his stead,
the army hiding in the mountains, white and colored together,
holing up in the mountain passes so tight
that the Federals and militia couldn't get in.
And then we make our escape into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
What have I said to make you think
that such a plan will work?
You are walking into a steel trap.
This is the United States Armory you are talking about.
We talked about this. You wrote me that it could be done.
I-I planned it to the limit.
No, I said no such thing.
You wrote to me. You s...
I said that it should be done.
But what should be and what could be
are two very different things, John.
[JOHN] Frederick...
we must hive the bees.
When they hear that you have taken
the nation's largest armory and are handing out rifles,
every slave will come and claim their liberty.
We stand at a moment
that may change the world.
Yes.
But not by suicide.
[EMPEROR] Maybe you just ain't up for it.
Maybe you done had too many highballs,
meat jellies, and boiled pigeons.
Now, maybe you're just a... a man of parlor talk.
Parlor talk a-and fancy silk shirts, of course.
[DOUGLASS] Or maybe I intend
to win this war and not die a martyr.
- No, no. - [STAMMERS]
How can you rest upon a reed so weary and broken?
[CHUCKLING]
In nature, a hunted animal sometimes finds a place
to stop and take its stand.
I have found such a place.
We will begin the fight at Harpers Ferry.
No, the battle will end at Harpers Ferry, John.
You are a respected man.
You are loved, revered.
Yes, and you are a fanatic.
I am a realist.
Right. And the Lord makes us in all kinds, so that...
so that if we work together,
we can achieve the impossible.
Come with me, Frederick.
I will defend you with my life.
When we strike, the bees will swarm,
but they won't swarm for me.
They'll swarm for love.
They'll swarm for you.
I cannot do it.
[SLOW, SOMBER MUSIC]
[EXHALES]
Well, then, I'll take my leave.
[DOUGLASS] Good luck, old friend.
Well...
I guess I'm gonna go with the Old Man, then.
Are you serious?
Yeah.
Think it's my time to take a stand, too.
[ONION] The captain took Frederick Douglass's news
across the ribs, knowing he was done in.
He knowed he was gonna lose fighting for the Negro,
on account of the Negro.
And he brung himself to it anyway.
For he trusted the Lord's word.
- Thank you. - Yeah.
Captain...
something in my heart tells me that God's with us.
[CRYING]
You're so kind.
I guess we all have those moments, hmm,
when the cotton turns yellow
and the boll weevil eats your crops,
and you're just...
shook down to your core with disappointment.
- That's what I'm feeling? - Mm.
If you reach down and touch...
you touch that disappointment,
you can feel God
opening the doors of your heart.
Here.
[ONION] Even as I found God,
God was telling me to get the hell out of there.
Frederick had wronged the Old Man something terrible.
There weren't no way Mr. Douglass
could've brung hisself to fight a real war.
He was a speechifying parlor man.
Some things in this world just ain't meant to be.
And that's a heavy load to bear.
But turns out
that weren't the worst of our problems.
[ANNIE] I'm sorry, Daddy, Mrs. Huffmaster told the sheriff
we're abolitionists harboring runaways.
He'll be here with his deputies to search the property.
[JOHN] How much time do we have?
I reckon the sheriff will be here
by sundown tomorrow night.
- Captain, let's do it now. - What are we supposed to do?
Why don't we just wait till spring?
[OWEN] No, we have to call it off.
[JOHN JR.] Yeah, it's not the worst idea that you've ever had.
- [CLAMORING] - It is not the worst idea...
- Silence! - [CLAMORING STOPS]
We have to move up the date of the attack.
- Wh-What? - When?
Isn't that the one thing the general told us not to do?
Tomorrow. Tomorrow night.
By the time the sheriff gets here, we'll be gone.
Mm. We attack Harpers Ferry tomorrow night.
No, we cannot pull this off in time.
Why don't we just kill the sheriff?
[CRYING]
[CLAMORING]
Onion, I know I've asked a lot of you,
but the cause needs you now more than ever.
You go to the railman.
You tell him to roust whomever he can.
We're moving tomorrow night.
Go, go, go. I believe in you.
Go, go.
[CLAMORING CONTINUES]
Go, go, go, go, Onion!
[SLOW, TENSE MUSIC]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
What you doing here?
I got a message from the captain.
Change of plans. We rolling tomorrow night.
Tomorrow night?
Why would he do a fool thing like that?
Don't worry about why.
Worry about bringing who you can.
I just got the ball rolling.
That ain't my problem.
If I hear one more cockeyed word out of that
fast little hole in your face, I'll throw you in the river.
I'm just telling you what the Old Man said.
Yeah.
You're just a messenger, ain't you?
Everything is simple to a sissy snit like you.
Can I tell the captain he can count on you?
Shit, I thought I had a month.
I don't know if I can round all them people up
by tomorrow night. I'll do what I can.
Stop the train before the bridge.
I'll get out, see what the trouble is.
I'll need a password from the captain's man.
A password?
[SIGHS] A-a-a sign, a word.
A signal to me to let the slaves off to fight.
It's got to be something normal.
I'll say, "Who goes there?"
Whoever there say, "Jesus is walking."
Can you remember that?
"Who goes there?" "Jesus is walking."
Get.
[ONION] The place was rolling like a military fort under fire.
The fellas were so relieved to get moving,
having been crushed in that tiny space so long,
it was a pity.
Everyone moving with such a purpose,
I never even got a chance to say goodbye to the Old Man.
Onion.
Come on, let's go.
Captain wants you to go back
with Salmon, Martha and Annie
- to the homestead. - [ONION] Why?
[JOHN JR.] We don't have time to argue.
Annie, come here.
[ANNIE] Thank you.
[WHIP CRACKS]
Goodbye, Annie.
Love you!
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
♪ [ANNIE] Michael, row ♪
♪ The boat ashore ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Michael, row the boat ashore ♪
- ♪ Hallelujah ♪ - I think you'll like North Elba.
It's quiet country.
Free country.
Free to sing your songs.
Have faith, lest you drown.
As long as Peter had faith, he wasn't liable to drown
on his way walking over the water to Jesus.
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
- Stop the wagon! Stop the wagon! - Quiet, Onion! Stay down!
- [HORSE NEIGHING] - Onion, what's gotten into you?
- Stop the wagon! - Onion!
The password: "Jesus is walking."
The thought of the captain dead... and on account of me...
Made me feel worse than Annie being disgusted with me...
A nigger playing a girl,
not man enough to love her.
I couldn't stand it.
"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" by Joe and Eddie
♪ Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah ♪
I'm a man, a-and I love you, Annie Brown.
And I won't ever see you again.
♪ Michael, row the boat ashore ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
Onion.
♪ Michael, row the boat ashore ♪
Onion!
♪ Hallelujah... ♪
Onion!
Onion, I know!
♪ Sister, help to trim the sails ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Sister, help to trim the sails ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Michael, row the boat ashore ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Michael, row the boat ashore ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Sister and brother, won't you lend a hand ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Let's get this ship to the promised land ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ Michael, row the boat ashore ♪