Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom

ERICA DUNBAR

One of the things happening throughout the early part of the 19th century, was the tremendous growth of cotton production. How that completely transformed the lives of enslaved people. How it moved men and women further south to grow what was basically white gold across the Southern landscape. NARRATOR The fear of being sold to the Deep South was real and ever present for enslaved people in Maryland, like Minty and everyone she knew.

KATE LARSON

Slave sales were constant; every week they were going on. (somber music) Slave traders from the Deep South would roam the Eastern Shore of Maryland, for instance, and purchase enslaved people and take them to the Deep South. And enslaved people in Maryland knew that, that was a death sentence. The average lifespan for an enslaved person who was purchased in the Chesapeake and brought to Mississippi or Louisiana was about seven years. (eerie music)

MIA BAY

Buying slaves was something that people participated in very enthusiastically. Slave auctions were kind of a social occasion in which a lot of people would come around, sort of look and see what was there. Buying a slave was something that many whites saw as sort of a realizations of all their hopes about sort of future wealth because they thought slaves were an investment. NARRATOR By 1860, the assessed value of enslaved people was more than three billion dollars, more than all industry in the North combined. Prices for enslaved people varied by sex, size, age, and health. Women aged 16 to 24 often commanded the highest prices at markets throughout the South, because their bodies had the potential to create more wealth for their owners.

DALE GREEN

Typically, the slave market was situated within the environment of the court house, the green, the public lawn where the enslaved are bought, sold, and traded.

KRISTEN ORTELL

The reality and the brutality of slavery was front and center. You know, a woman who's hysterical and crying because she's about to be sold away from her children, that's out in the open air for anyone to see. (eerie music) NARRATOR Minty witnessed the horror firsthand. She watched, helplessly, as her older sisters Linah and Soph were dragged away in chains, screaming, their children ripped from their arms. It was a memory that would haunt her for the rest of her life.