Underground Quotes
There was nobody better at turning an eye then the real Harriet, my mama. She worked u pon the house and she was well versed in the way of white folks. How to judge their moods; how to move through they space like a spirit; how to listen and remember secrets that might be of use later. Her lessons would be helpful once I started moving cargo, but in the meantime, I had no use for it.
Ain't but a mile and they was ready to give up. I meant to keep on, but they dragged me back. That was the last time I convinced anybody to run. That freedom fire, that ain't something that can be stoked in someone else, and embers ain't enough.
Harriet
A dead slave ain't worth nothin'.
Harriet
Black folk, we know pain. Known it a long time. I got more scars on my body than I can count.
Harriet
I took up that broom once more, then again [thumps podium]. I never cried out once. I wouldn't give Ms. Suan the satisfaction. That's how I learned to love the pain. Er'time I got hit, I took it as an opportunity...for defiance. To not give anyone the reaction they expected. Then, I thought again, maybe that there was freedom. But I couldn't reconcile why something everybody held so precious come from pain. There had to be an easier way to it than that.
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
