[0:39]A friend of a friend set me. Come in quickly. It's all right. You're safe here.
[1:00]I belong to the Reverend Adam Reagan in Lexington, Kentucky.
[1:09]My master was a minister, yet he sold my mother. He sold all my brothers and sisters at auction. He swapped me for a pair of horses.
[1:30]From the time of its inception, America was deeply rooted in a system of slavery. The right to own slaves was enshrined in the Constitution and was a bedrock of the American economy in both the south and north. Yet despite the dangers to themselves and their families, many enslaved people tried to escape, some on their own and some with the help of a secret network.
[2:07]Louis Hayden was born enslaved in 1811. He would be sold three times, owned by a reverend, a clock peddler and leased out to others. As a young man, he married an enslaved woman named Esther Harvey. They had two sons, one who died in infancy. Esther and their surviving son were also soon sold away and Lewis never saw them again. I have one child who is sold, nobody knows where and that I never can bear to think of.
[2:55]In 1840, at age 29, Lewis was sold to a cruel slave holder. who demanded long days and was quick with his whip. During that time, using a Bible and discarded newspapers, Louis taught himself to read. He also remarried, having met and fallen in love with an enslaved woman named Harriet Bell. She lived with her son at her owner's home where she worked as a housekeeper and child nurse. Louis look after the boy, Joseph, as if he were his own child. But every moment was shadowed by the fear that they could be torn apart at a moment's notice. The traitor was all around, the slave pen at hand, and we did not know what time any of us might be in it. When a friend was carried off, why? It was the same as death.
[4:00]like so many other enslaved people, Louis yearned to escape, but he would not leave without his wife and son. slavesholders would go to great lengths to recover their valuable property. Often hiring slave catchers, well armed and ruthless bounty hunters. The consequences of being caught, we're horrible.
[4:36]In 1844, when Lewis was 33, he was leased to the owners of the Phoenix Hotel in Lexington. It was there Lewis met a woman named Diana Webster, who introduced him to her friend, Calvin Ferbank. She was a school teacher from Vermont, and he was a ministerial student from Oberlin College in Ohio, a center of anti As they would come to reveal to Lewis, Calvin and Diya were actually operative on the underground railroad and Calvin had arrived in Lexington on a mission that would offer Lewis his chance for escape. Calvin asked Lewis, why do you want your freedom? To which Lewis replied, because I am a man. On the evening of Saturday, September 28th, 1844, and Joseph steal away from their slave owner's house. They met Calvin,dia, and Israel the driver, an enslaved man who had been hired out to Calvin with a hatchet. Together, they took their first dangerous steps to freedom.
[5:57]Let's go.
[6:05]The group traveled as unconspicuously as they could through Kentucky.
[6:53]At dawn, the Hebrews finally reached the Ohio River. The borderland between slavery and freedom. Crossing into Ohio, a free state, Kelvin left the Heden in red oak, a bedrock of abolitionist activity. The Heden worked their way north to San Duchy Ohio. They often moved under the cover of darkness. If they were lucky, their next stop would be arranged in advance where a friendly face would feed and shelter them. Other times, they just made their way north without knowing where they would next find safety. Like many freedom seekers, the Heden were on their way to Canada, where slavery had been abolished a decade earlier in 1834. Yet others escaped to the south and some even crossed oceans to get away. The underground railroad was as old as slavery in America itself. slave group in the 19th century, the means of helping people escape, grew more organized. By the 1830s, a decentralized network had evolved. As steam engines emerged around the same time, the escape routes were dug, the underground railroad. Yet as much as it was a network, the underground railroad was a movement, shaped by abolitionists, social activists, former slaves, and people who were simply moved to help those who stood before them in need. They organized through family networks, community institutions, and local churches. Molly Hornabloom was a free black woman who helped her enslave granddaughter, Harvey and Jacobs hide in her attic store room for seven years before she escaped north by boat. Levi Cobb, a Quaker, reportedly assisted more than 3,000 slaves. And the legendary Harriot Tubman who escaped from bondage herself and then made 13 trips back to Maryland where she led 70 others out of slavery. Yet the engine that drove the underground railroad was the indominal will of the thousands of enslaved men and women who sought freedom.
[9:27]Just before the Harwoods crossed into Canada, they received word that Calvin and Dylan Wesley had been caught as they returned to Lexington.
[9:44]For assisting with the Henderson escape, Israel the driver was whipped and tortured until he revealed the escape route. Calvin was sentenced to 15 years, five for each slave he helped escape. The Freedom had come at a terrible price.
[10:06]Safely in Canada, Lewis sent a letter to his former owner. Sir, you have already discovered me absent. I never was a great friend to the institution of robbing and crushing slavery. I've concluded for the present to try freedom to be my own master. So, well.
[10:35]Lewis, Hubert and Joseph lived in Canada for six months. But it was a restful freedom. determined to join the struggle to in slavery, they moved to Detroit. But it was not long before Lewis was drawn to the epicenter of the abolitionist movement and home to one of the nation's most dynamic, free black communities. Boston, Massachusetts.
[11:10]By 1848, the Hadens had opened a successful clothing store and began shelving others escaping from slavery. Lewis had not forgotten Calvin Fairbank, who after four years still languished in a Kentucky prison. Lewis negotiated a farewell with his former owner who had pressed charges against From his network in Boston, Lewis raised the money to secure Calvin's release. It would be a small victory for Lewis in the face of a luming battle. In 1850, Congress passed thetive slave law, making it easier for slave catchers to hunt people in free states and return them to slavery. The architect of the law was Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. The very same man who had sold away Hayden's first wife and son. The new law required all citizens to assist in the capture of a suspected slave. Assessing a fugitive would be punished with a fine of $1,000 and six months in prison. As part of the payment that freed Calvin Farrar, Lewis had also purchased his own freedom. But Harriet and Joseph were still fugitives and faced being sent back into
[12:33]In defense of the victorious slave law and despite the risk to his family, Lewis helped plan and execute a series of daring rescue missions directly challenging the federal government.
[12:50]Only a few months after passage of the law, Shadrak Mink, a freedom seeker was arrested by slave catcher and held captive in the Boston courthouse. Lewis led black abolitionists as they stormed the courthouse, rescuing Minkens and delivering him to freedom in Canada.
[13:13]All the while, Louis and Harriet continued shirtering people, fleering slavery.
[13:25]Louis was known to keep barrels of gunpowder in his basement and on one occasion, the slave catches he would drop a torch onto the barrels if they did not walk away. The head's home became known as the temple of refuge. The most important stop on the underground railroad in Boston. When the civil war began, Louis fought for the right or African Americans to serve in the Union Army and helped recruit troops for the 54th regiment. The first African-Americans in the North. With the northern victory in the civil war, over two and a half centuries of legalized slavery came to a close. Lewis Hayden was 54 years old. Although the dark and damming curse of slavery is disappearing, it's hising may still be heard. Like so many others involved in the underground railroad, Lewis's focus shifted to the pursuit of equality. In 1873, Lewis was one of the first African-Americans elected to the Massachusetts State legislature, and until his death in 1889, he remained a leader in the fight for freedom.
[15:00]Some accounts, the underground railroad helped well over 100,000 enslaved men, women and children, escape servitude. It was America's first civil rights movement. Day by day I work the light.
[15:23]Every minute over time.
[15:31]fingers quick. My fingers bleed to make you rich. You can take my body, you can take my bones, you can take my blood, but not my soul. You can take my body, you can take my bones, you can take my blood, but not my soul.
[16:12]I've got a baby, but shall I keep him. It will come the day when I'll be weeping. But how can I love him in the This little baby on my breast. You can take my body, you can take my bones, you can take my blood, but not my soul. You can take my body, you can take my bones, you can take my blood, but not my soul.
[16:53]You can take my body, you can take my bones, you can take my blood, but not my soul.
