Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[music]
Boy: In 1859, slavery was
a popular institution in America.
African Americans were bought and sold to cook,
clean and help maintain crops.
People lost family and friends to ruthless slave
owners who bought and sold slaves for profit.
Girl 1: It was the saddest thing that ever happened to me.
Ma's master told my sister, Marie Robinson...
Boy: "Get your things together,
I'm going to take you to Richmond today.
I'm going to sell you.
Been offered a good price.
Girl 1: Lord, child, I cried.
Mother and sister cried too, but that didn't help.
Old master Robinson carried her away from here.
Girl 2: Husbands always went to the woods when they knew
their wives were due for a whipping.
Charlie Jones was a slave that had his wife working in
the same field.
Annie was big with child and getting near her time.
So one day she made a slip and chopped a young plant down.
The overseer came running up screaming at her.
It made her more nervous and she chopped off another one.
Then he lifted up a rawhide and beat Annie.
Charlie just stood there, hearing his wife scream.
Staring at the sky, not daring to look over at her
or even say a word.
Girl 3: There were two free African Americans who took
action against this treatment.
Girl 4: They participated in the daring raid on Harpers
Ferry with John Brown.
Both knew the lives of slaves were brutal.
Even though they were free, they had family and friends
who were not.
Their actions during the raid were brave and unselfish.
Girl 2: According to accounts,
Lewis Sheridan Leary was riddled to pieces in the
Shenandoah River during the raid.
He lived for 10 more hours and during that time sent a
message to his family which read...
Girl 5: John Anthony Copeland first heard of
John Brown from his uncle Lewis Leary.
Copeland was an abolitionist and a person dedicated to
helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada.
During the raid, Copeland was captured and an angry
mob tried to lynch him with a ten second noose.
Girl 4: During the trial Judge Parker noted,
he was a free ***.
"He had been educated and there was a dignity about
him that could not help liking.
Cleverest of all the prisoners.
If I had had the power and could have concluded to
pardon any many among them, he was the man I would have
picked out."
Boy: I am dying for freedom.
I could not die for a better cause.
I would rather die than be a slave.
Girl 3: These two men made a dramatic leap for freedom on
that dreary October night in 1859.
Now it's our turn...
and this is Our Jump for Freedom!