Underground Quotes
Rosalee, look at me. We got to be patient. Listen, the plan has changed, but the end result is the same. We ain't gon leave this plantation without yo kin. Trust me.
Noah
Trader: $7 to sell free men into the space trade...
Patty: Well, it's nothing so harsh. It's just a case of misidentification. For example, there's a girl, real pretty East Indian number. She has no business being here in the States, but it doesn't matter that her shade of brown is a little different. I know a few men, deep down, who will pay a pretty penny to put those ruby lips to use.
Cato: What do you want from me?
Patty: Trust. It's how you get people to let their guard down, and people trust those who look like them more than they trust those who do not.
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
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
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
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
One morning, Ms. Susan and her husband got in an ugly screaming match. While they scream and scream, I just wait. My eyes glued on a bowl on the table. you know what was in it? Lumps of pure, white sugar. [Crowd laughs] When Mistress back was turned, I moved reaaal slow. Reached my hand right into that sugar bowl, took just one lump...and that old bat must have heard me because she had the rawhide down coming like a storm. I gave one jump out that door and I flew. I ran and I ran. Sugar melting on my tongue never ain't tasted so good in my life. I ran and I didn't know where I was going. I ain't have nowhere to go, but it didn't matter in that moment! 'Cause I had just stolen what joy I could and that, that, that felt like freedom!
Harriet
If you ask anybody about little Minty, that's what they called me back then, they'd say I was the most rebellious thing. Mischievous, too, and I took pride in that, knowing that they didn't own me in spirit.
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
