Underground Season 2 Episode 6: "Minty" Quotes
I wish I could say nothing harder than the first step, but all of them be hard.
Harriet
And then, finally, I crossed the line. I was in Pennsylvania. I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun come like gold through the trees and over the fields. I felt like I was in heaven. I had crossed the line. I...was free.
Harriet
I was going back. By the time I did, the activty...the activy in the capitol had shifted the ground from from under us and nowhere was safe in the United States for me and mine.
Harriet
See, I'd sweep, but then I'd dust right away. I wasn't giving no time for the dust to settle. So, all my hard work come undone. That' the way I feel these days.
Harriet
Harriet: Like me, he had been known by many names. The most fitting I can see is Captain Brown. I have no doubt that you've heard of him and his exploits as a friend to the cause.
Crowd Member 1: He's no friend. He's a murderer!
Lucas: The captain is the future of this fight.
Crowd Member 2: Mr. Brown and his methods are too extreme.
Lucas: His methods get results.
Crowd Member: His methods give us all a bad name.
Elizabeth: Can everyone stop! We're here to hear Harriet speak. So let her speak.
Slavery ain't just a sin. It's a state of war. Profiting off the bodies of others. Raping the bodies of others. Killing the bodies of others. Been that way since the dawn of man and we ain't been calling it that because of a nationwide conspiracy working against us. A conspiracy, as the captain called it, of slaveholders actively at war working hard to make it seem the way of things. They pass it on to their sons and daughters. They strengthen it through government. They justify it through religion, calling it Christianity. That ain't my Christianity! Calling it God's will. That ain't my God!
Harriet
Down South they got men stealers for ministers; women whippers for missionaries; cradle-plunderers for church members. It's the most blasphemous of fronts.
Harriet
We call ourselves abolitionists but we ain't abolish nothing. So much of our breath be spent arguing over methods that it overshadows the purpose. We speak of the cause with such fervor, yet we seen no effect. A passionate debate about action is important, but it should never be mistaken for action itself. As we fight amongst ourselves on how to defeat the enemy, the enemy takes more ground every day. From ballot boxes to breeding farms, marching in locked steps against us while we bicker over what song our fife and bugle should play. We make enemies of ourselves.
Harriet
There ain't no negotiations on freedom big or small. There ain't no compromises, half-measures, anything. Not to those who in bondage. Not to any of us either.'Cause a country built on bodies will always need more for the slaughter. As long as slavery stands, ain't none of us, no matter hue, man or woman, be free. And if you refuse to see the chains us all wearing them, you living in a dream and the rest of us are suffering because of it.
Harriet
Our actions and our inactions change the course of things. All of us. Me? I aim to continue to act, and it seems to me, Captain Brown's path is the only path left for me to follow.
Harriet
If you don't have it in you to take up arms against the injustice then you gotta pray another prayer and you gotta walk in it with conviction. He will provide, but you got to do your part. You gotta find what it means for you to be a soldier. Beat back those that are trying to kill everything good and right in the world and call it making it great again. We can't afford to be just citizens in a time of war. That'll be surrender. That'll be giving up our future and our souls. Ain't nobody get to sit this one out, you hear me?
Harriet
