I just finished watching the first episode of Underground that airs on WGN on Wednesday nights at 10/9 CT, and it was amazing.
Let's start with the opening of them playing New Slaves by Kanye. I know I was thinking about it way deeper than I should have, but the way I saw it, it represented a new way of telling what slavery actually is and not the watered down stuff we've been getting since its conception.
Next we move onto slaves being caught and running into Elliot Stabler (yes I know he's Chris Meloni, but he will forever be Stabler), who was seen trying to help a slave woman escape, but we later come to learn he's an actual slave hunter. Yes, the truth about how wolves in ally clothing was exposed folks. Not everyone who claims to be for your liberation actually wants it, especially if they can still turn a profit from it (sips tea).
Moving on, Noah (Aldis Hodge, Hardison from Leverage, a show I've binge watched at least 10x) and his fellow slaves were being held in a place where caught runaways were kept until their masters came to get them was talking to a young man who was shot after crossing the river to freedom. He told them of the map to freedom. Turn out, the map was a song sang by slaves. Of course many he know the history of slavery know that slaves were either tortured or murdered for learning to read. But I found it very intriguing how our music has been a way of freedom since our ancestors were captured and enslaved. If you could not read you could still sing. Again, I may be looking to deep into this, but I found the link between the way some of still try to find freedom from the struggle through music (Hip Hop, Jazz, R&B , Rock & Roll, etc).
Next up we meet Rosalee (Jurnee Smollette) who works up at the big house, because being "pretty" meant light skinned and soft hair and you didn't have to do hard labor. Rosalee is excited for Sarafina who had just given birth, but Sarafina, plagued by the oppression of slavery and more than likely post partum depression because of it drowns her child. Rosalee is distraught and can't understand it as she explains to her mother. Her mother made the most profound statement that struck a chord in me, because in August of 2014 I had the exact same feeling. She said, "I ain't never had true fear until I had you and your brother." I can't even imagine what it was like to be the mother of a black child back then, but today, there is still a fear for the safety of your black child in America. But I digress.
As we get to the point where Noah has to explain to Massa about where he was and why he got caught as a runaway, his master said, "There isn't anywhere to hide as a nigger in a white man's world ." When I tell you, I had to clutch all of my pearls, there were none you could find inside of a clam shell. My word.
But let's move onto this mistress. Many people like to discount the evil of the masters' wives. There have been many tellings of how mistresses would torture the children of slaves who were raped by their masters. This mistress in this show made me want to pop off. Her son and Rosalee's brother ran in front of the wagon of the overseer and made his wagon fall apart. The mistress tells Rosalee to go get her son. When she does, the overseer threatens to beat her brother. Rosalee offers up herself to take his whipping and the mistress and massa sit back and watch. What I found interesting was how Rosalee's mother looked at the Massa and he ordered overseer Bill to stop. Now this didn't mean that he cared for her enough to want her to be free, but there was something there.
Later we get to the point where Massa's northern brother and his wife who could not have children arrived for a visit, we see an even worse form of how sadistic slavery was. Massa's brother was out here trying to give us free, and Massa wasn't bout that life. Here we arrive at the Big House celebration/funeral for Sarafina's baby. The slaves are mourning the loss of a child, while the white folks are partying up. But listen, when Mistress tried to throw shade at her sister in law Elizabeth from up north claiming how Southerners were doing all the work while Northerners had all the ideals, I wanted to throw something. Like How??????
Of course, Elizabeth had her own shade to throw. She came back with "This cake is delicious, did you make it yourself?" Bloop! Now the cattiness of these women in Mistress's circle reminded me of the real housewives of Beverly Hills, OC, NY etc. I am so serious. All of this was happening while Rosalee's brother was sitting in a swing fanning them. Did I mention how this show will make you mad and ready to pop off??
These were just some of the most memorable moments of this one episode. I for one am excited because our narratives are being told by us! It definitely won't be taught to your kids in school. John Legend is executive producing and if you know about his mission that he's on right now, then you know it will be done right. I think this show should be seen with your kids, minus some parts, but I think we need to start seeing the truth for what it is and having the hard discussions. We also need to talk about the resistance. Many times we hear about the oppression, but we never talk about the great lengths people went through to be free. I'll leave you with a quote from John Legend when interviewed about the show:
“When you think of the depths of oppression and the depths of the evil that these folks faced -- and they decided to do something that was against the odds anyway -- we can apply that to anything that we’re going through today,” he said. “It’s not nearly as oppressive now, but we’re still fighting for justice in America and we can take courage from their courage. We can be inspired by their heroism.”