- [insects trilling] - [birds chirping]
[gate creaks]
[young Ridgeway] We're just fine, Ma.
You don't need to worry about us.
You remember when I fell on that big rake in the shed?
I never seen my own blood before.
I got dizzy.
I, uh...
I felt something.
When I was bleeding.
Something like he always...
talks about.
The Spirit.
But then I...
It didn't last. It didn't... it didn't stay with me.
What if I can't find it in me again?
What if... he can't find it in me?
[gate creaks]
♪ ♪
[insects chirping]
[birds cawing]
[metal clanging]
[horse neighs]
- [lively chatter] - [kid] Oh, no!
- You're it! - [laughter]
♪ ♪
[laughing]
[echoing laughter]
I, um...
I...
I-I heard those farmers in town talking about you again.
They-they think you're deranged, hiring freedmen.
Iron is iron.
If a man can work it,
then the Spirit is with and within him.
Yeah, but how do you know that the Spirit is...
Thank you.
- Mm? - Uh, no, thank you.
- [jug clinks on table] - [chuckles softly]
H-How do you know the Spirit is with them?
The Great Spirit flows through everything--
the earth, the sky, all of it.
It connects us all.
Now, I've told you this.
Right.
If... if-if you can't see it...
...how do you know that it's there?
You don't see it.
You feel it.
[stammers] What if I don't, uh...
feel it in me?
Wh-What happens then?
You will, son. You will.
All things in due time.
[gears grinding]
[metal clanging]
[grinding and clanging continue]
- [fire whooshing] - [sizzling]
Arnold?
Come on over here, finish these links.
Uh...
Who will keep the fire up?
Reckon my boy is strong enough now, sir.
The Mighty Mack.
Shooting up like a weed, young lad.
I'll wager you'll end up bigger than your father.
Go on. Go on, now.
[Ridgeway Sr.] Go on, now.
Take it.
What if I ruin it?
Liquid fire is the blood of this earth.
Respect it, and it'll help you draw out this iron's purpose.
[iron sizzles]
[groans] Sorry. Sorry.
[rod clangs]
Lesson learned, boy.
- Try again. - [groans]
[grunts]
[echoing metal clanging]
[footsteps approaching]
[wind whistling softly]
[floorboards creaking]
[footsteps departing]
[door closes]
[deep breath]
[sharp inhale]
- [exhales] - [birds cawing]
[birds singing]
- Mack? - [Mack] Mr. Arnold?
- What you doing out here, boy? - Nothing, sir.
It don't look like nothing to me.
Come on, now.
What you got in your hands there?
[scoffs softly]
It's dangerous to play with fire.
I know, sir, but I wanted to see the Spirit.
What's that, now?
The Great Spirit.
I wanted to see it.
Like your daddy always say.
I wanted to see if it's in me.
So...
You think it's right just to set the land on fire
'cause it pleases you?
No, sir.
Then what was you doing with these?
Show me.
Show me what you was doing with these.
What you sour about?
Just...
I wants to keep the fire.
I wants to keep it going all the way to the bottom,
to show the Spirit.
It's cause you, uh, you letting the Spirit get away from you.
Huh?
You can't just...
toss the fire down there and expect it to live.
You've got to go with it.
You've got to protect it with your own Spirit.
Th-that's... that's how you show the great, true Spirit.
[insects trilling]
[trilling intensifies]
[echoing screams]
[Mack] Help!
[Mack shouts]
- [wind whistling] - [match crackles]
[metal clanging rapidly]
[Mack groaning]
[groans]
[Ridgeway Sr.] This'll...
keep the bone straight as it heals.
[Mack] But what if it doesn't work?
Come on, now, Mack. You be strong.
Now, don't you fear, young Mack.
The Great Spirit pulses in the fire.
And it'll flow right into you.
Don't you feel it?
Yes, sir. I do.
Arnold.
Why don't you wait for me in the house.
And I'll talk to you directly.
[horse neighs]
- [insects trilling] - [birds singing]
[gate creaks]
[Ridgeway Sr.] He's got an anger, Em.
Burns red-hot and then lights mine.
Our boy wants to grip the Spirit in his hands
instead of listening to its call.
And I'm not sure I'm the one to teach him.
Lord knows how much
the Spirit in me was put there by you.
At what cost?
At what cost, this Spirit?
At what cost?
- [indistinct chatter] - [horse neighs]
♪ ♪
[laughter in distance]
[store clerk clears throat]
[sniffs]
How you figure to pay for that?
You can put that on my father's credit.
No, sir. Don't work that way.
Have your pappy come down here,
he want to put a coat on his credit.
Look here, now, what about all this dang-on candy?
[indistinct chatter]
[man] Your boy ain't got no money.
♪ ♪
- [lively chatter] - [piano playing upbeat tune]
[Chandler] It is property of the Reynolds Plantation.
About 40 miles south.
Snuck out last week after the master sold his wife
and hasn't been seen since.
[patroller 1] I say we pay a visit to the wife.
She knows where he's hiding.
[Chandler] Well, yes and no.
It'll lie to our faces, but here's what we do.
I already asked around.
Ain't but one place it's headed.
So I say
we hide just off the road outside the farm.
Wait for it to come to us.
- [patroller 2] Sounds good to me. - I know where he's going.
[patroller 2] Who the hell asked you?
[chuckles] Easy, now.
Easy, now. [chuckles]
Sit.
[chair drags]
Yes, sir.
I know this land as well as any nigger.
I grew up here.
There's a patch of forest on the Templeton land.
It's real thick.
Easy to spot a nigger in there
if you know where you're looking.
[Chandler laughing]
[Chandler] Oh, look at you.
Now, you listen to me, young man, and you listen good.
If you show us,
I'll cut you in.
- [loud thump] - [patroller 2] Cut him in, my ass!
Big prize, gentlemen. Plenty to go around.
It's American imperative.
The land of opportunity.
Let's see what this young prophet here can do.
Have a sip of that.
All right.
[insects trilling]
[wood creaking]
♪ ♪
[twigs snapping]
[sighs softly]
[baby fussing]
♪ ♪
- [baby fussing] - [man shushing]
[shushes, whispers indistinctly]
[baby fusses]
Please.
Please, sir.
Please don't hurt my son, sir.
Please.
- Please, sir. The baby... - [shushing]
Take me, but leave my son.
- [baby fusses] - Have mercy on my child.
Spare my son.
Please, God.
Protect him.
- [grunts] - [baby crying]
I got him! I got him!
Chandler, I got him!
- I got him! - [crying continues]
[crying]
[panting slowly]
[echoing crying]
[metal clanging]
♪ ♪
[crying]
[footsteps approaching]
[Chandler] Lookee here, boys.
A natural hunter.
[chuckles]
Careful, now.
When it's little like that, easy to forget the difference.
[baby wailing]
[Chandler] Give it here.
Come on. Yeah.
Here we are.
What you gonna do with the baby?
Sell it off.
Same as its daddy.
- How come you call him "it"? - [baby stops crying]
[chuckles softly]
[coins clinking]
Why not?
[baby fussing]
Go on, take it now. You did good.
[baby screams]
[baby fusses]
[store clerk] Can I help you with something?
Back for your candy, boy?
[horse neighs in distance]
[clerk clicks tongue]
Right. [clears throat]
We got an order today for parts and horseshoes
four times the size of any we've ever had.
Four times.
Perhaps it's time we, uh, bought ourselves a few slaves.
Ease the burden. We can afford it.
Way less costly than... than hiring out
all these, uh, freedmen.
You know what kind of family this is.
But think about it.
Maybe that's the real Great Spirit. [chuckles]
If you're meant to be free, then you are free.
And if you're meant to be in chains, then you're a nigger.
How can you sit there and say that,
eating the food Annie's just cooked?
That's precisely my point.
Annie and Samuel... they worked hard.
They earned their freedom.
Now, th-th-the ones who run away...
they're dogs, they're dangerous.
Why shouldn't they be in chains?
[Ridgeway Sr.] Son...
you must try to recognize yourself in every living thing.
You must look into every man...
...every man, and search for yourself there.
This is how you find the Spirit.
Your mother would...
She...
You understand what I'm saying?
I think so.
Yes.
[footsteps approaching]
[Annie] Seems like a perfect time for some pie, huh?
Hope you guys are ready.
Good Lord, Annie. We don't deserve you.
I reckon not, but I...
I think I'll stay anyhow.
I'll leave it right here, atop of Mr. Arnold's masterpiece.
Annie, can I beg your pardon?
Yes, sir, Mr. Arnold.
- [Ridgeway] Thank you. - [Annie] Yes.
You're a free woman, yes?
Samuel is free.
Mack is free.
- [clock ticking] - You are all free and, uh...
...earnedly so, yes?
- Well, uh, yes, sir. - [ticking intensifies]
I reckon we is.
What, then, do you think of, uh, niggers who aren't?
- Who run away... - [Ridgeway Sr.] Arnold.
[Ridgeway] ...from their duties to their masters,
and then assume--
- because of some politician-- - [Ridgeway Sr.] Arnold!
[Ridgeway] ...that they are due the rights which you earned...
- [loud thump] - [Ridgeway Sr.] Arnold!
[ticking stops]
♪ ♪
[Annie] I, uh... I...
- I reckon that we... - [Ridgeway Sr.] Thank you, Annie.
Thank you.
- That'll be all. - [Ridgeway] Yes. Thank you, Annie.
[Ridgeway scoffs]
You're my son.
Your mother's son.
Please don't break my heart.
♪ ♪
[door creaks open]
[door closes]
♪ ♪
[crickets chirping]
[metal clanging in distance]
[clanging continues]
[clanging echoes]
[insects trilling]
[owl hoots]
[metal clanging]
- [iron sizzling] - [fire whooshing]
[metal clanging]
[sizzling]
Do you, uh... Do you need some help?
I'm fine, thank you.
[metal clanging]
Here.
Brand-new coat for you, Pa.
I bought it myself.
It's got silver buttons on it.
Pure metal. I checked it.
I got a coat.
[metal clanging]
Annie's patched that up half a dozen times, Pa.
That won't keep you no more.
Man like me ain't got no need for such finery.
Why don't you keep it?
I already got one, just like this.
Well, look at you, son.
Two coats.
That's a mighty fine thing.
♪ ♪
[fire whooshes]
[metal clanging]
[sizzling]
[fire crackling]
♪ ♪
[metal clanging]
[echoing metal clanging]
[♪ Kool Blues: "I Want to be Ready"]
♪ I want to be ready ♪
♪ When the hurt ♪
♪ Comes my way ♪
♪ I want to be ready ♪
♪ When the hurt ♪
♪ Comes my way ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ I want to know what is happenin' to me ♪
♪ Want to know how ♪
♪ You could let this be, yeah ♪
♪ And I want to be ready ♪
♪ When the hurt ♪
♪ Comes my way ♪
♪ Ready ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ready ♪
- ♪ I got to be ♪ - ♪ I got to be ♪
♪ Ready ♪♪
♪ ♪