[Announcer] Welcome to "A Call to Freedom with The Ohio Valley Symphony," recorded live at the historic Ariel Opera House in downtown Gallipolis, Ohio.

Tonight, we celebrate one of the greatest movements in American history, the Underground Railroad, and its greatest conductor Harriet Tubman.

♪ Mandy vocalizing [Announcer: Featuring Mandy Gaines.]

♪ Mandy vocalizing And the Ohio Valley Symphony.

[Gentle orchestral music] [Orchestra playing "America the Beautiful"] [Triumphant orchestral music] [Gentle orchestral music] [Orchestral music swells] [Gentle orchestral music] [Triumphant orchestral music] [Orchestral music swells] [Applause] We are in the Ariel Opera House in Gallipolis, Ohio which is located on the Ohio River, the dividing line between free states and slave states until the Civil War.

Once a freedom seeker made it to land on the Ohio side of the river, they were free.

The Underground Railroad ran right through Gallipolis, and today's residents here are proud of their ancestors' role in helping freedom seekers to escape their bonds.

The music for tonight's concert has roots in the era of the Underground Railroad.

We just heard "America the Beautiful."

Our next selection is "The Battle Cry of Freedom," which was composed during the Civil War by Northerner George Frederick Root.

[Triumphant orchestral music] [Orchestra playing "The Battle Cry of Freedom"] [Steady beats of snare drum and bugle] [Rhythmic orchestral music] [Swelling call of bugle with snare drum] [Triumphant orchestral music] [Orchestral music slows] [Triumphant orchestral music] [Applause] "Wayfaring Stranger" is a 19th century American folk song about a person wandering in a strange land, often associated with enslaved people escaping the bonds of slavery.

The lyrics include the phrase, "I'm only going over Jordan," which is how many freedom seekers referred to crossing the Ohio River.

[Gentle orchestral music] ♪ I am a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world of woe ♪ ♪ Yet there's no sickness, toil, or danger, ♪ In that bright land to which I roam ♪ ♪ I'm going there to see my father ♪ ♪ I'm going there no more to roam ♪ ♪ I'm only going over Jordan, ♪ ♪ I'm only going over home ♪ ♪ I know dark clouds will hover o'er me, ♪ ♪ I know my way is rough and steep ♪ ♪ But golden fields lie just before me ♪ ♪ Where God's redeemed will ever sleep ♪ ♪ I'm going there to see my mother ♪ ♪ She said she'd meet me when I come ♪ ♪ I'm only going over Jordan ♪ ♪ I'm only going over home ♪ [Orchestral interlude] ♪ I am a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world of woe ♪ ♪ Yet there's no sickness, toil, or danger, ♪ In that bright land to which I roam ♪ ♪ I'm going there to see my loved ones ♪ ♪ I'm going there no more to roam ♪ ♪ I'm only going over Jordan ♪ ♪ I'm only going over home ♪ ♪ Wordless singing ♪ I'm just going over ♪ home [Applause] "Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free," begins the Shaker song "Simple Gifts" which was composed by Joseph Brackett in the 1840's.

The Shakers were a Christian sect who were staunch abolitionists and aided the Underground Railroad.

The next piece is a set of variations on "Simple Gifts."

[Gentle orchestral beginning of] ["Variations on Simple Gifts"] [Orchestral music quickens] [Orchestral music swells] [Orchestral music slows] [Rhythmic orchestral music] [Rich orchestral music] [Gentle orchestral music] [Applause] Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Our next piece uses quotes from Harriet to create a prayer using her own words The song was inspired by this quote, "He gave me strength, and he set the North Star in the heavens, he meant I should be free."

[Rhythmic orchestral beginning of] ["I Should Be Free"] ♪ Oh, where do I go from here?

♪ ♪ Lord, make my pathway clear.

♪ ♪ By the light of the moon, ♪ ♪ by the moss on the tree, You meant ♪ ♪ I should be free.

You meant I should be free.

♪ ♪ You set the North Star in the heavenly sky, ♪ ♪ gave me strength, you heard my cry.

♪ ♪ I shall fight for my liberty.

♪ ♪ You meant I should be free.

♪ ♪ You meant I should be free.

♪ ♪ By the light of the stars by the heavenly band, ♪ ♪ cross the Jordan for the Promised Land.

♪ ♪ Lord, I'm going to hold steady on you, ♪ ♪ and I know you will see me through.

♪ ♪ Yes, I know you will see me through.

♪ ♪ See me through.

♪ Under the cover of darkness I go, ♪ ♪ Sweet chariot, swing low.

♪ ♪ Make a home for my people with God ♪ ♪ helping me.

You meant I should be free.

♪ ♪ You meant I should be free.

♪ [Rhythmic orchestral interlude] ♪ By the stars in the sky, by the heavenly band ♪ ♪ cross the Jordan for the Promised Land.

♪ ♪ Lord, I'm going to hold steady on you, ♪ ♪ and I know you will see me through ♪ ♪ Yes, I know you will see me through.

♪ ♪ See me through.

♪ Under the cover of darkness I go, ♪ ♪ sweet chariot, swing low.

♪ ♪ Make a home for my people with God helping me.

♪ ♪ You meant I should be free.

♪ ♪ He meant I should be free.

♪ ♪ I should be free.

[Applause] The Underground Railroad used railroad terms to describe its people and locations.

The people were called agents, station masters, and conductors.

The fugitives were called passengers.

The houses that helped conceal escaping slaves were called stations and depots.

Our next piece, entitled "Harriet," tells the tale of Harriet Tubman's swashbuckling, daredevil life as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

[Heroic orchestral beginning of "Harriet"] Paul Revere's midnight ride to warn patriots of an invading British force enshrined him as an enduring American hero.

His heroics took place over a period of one night in 1775.

Harriet Tubman's heroics took place over a period of 15 years, during which her life was constantly at risk.

[Triumphant orchestral music] Her daring raids did so much damage to the slavocracy that a total reward of $40,000 was offered for her capture, the equivalent of 1.5 million in today's money.

During the Civil War, Harriet fought for the Union Army as a scout, spy, and nurse.

She was the first woman in American history to lead troops into battle.

[Triumphant music continues] [Gentle orchestral music] Harriet was born Araminta Ross in 1821 or 1822.

She was known by the nickname Minty.

Minty's parents loved her and tried to shield her from the painful realities of life under the yoke of slavery.

But they couldn't keep her safe for long.

Because an enslaved person was a commodity to a slave owner.

They were often hired out or sold to other enslavers.

At age five, Minty was rented to a woman named Miss Susan, as if Minty were a tool or a mule.

She was assigned a full load of household chores that she was far too young to handle, and at the end of the day, she was required to rock the cradle of Miss Susan's baby throughout the night.

If the baby cried, Minty was whipped.

Later in life, Harriet said, "There were good masters and mistresses, as I've heard tell, but I didn't happen to come across any of them."

[Triumphant orchestral music] At age 12, Araminta began working in the fields.

Even though field work was physically demanding, she preferred to work outside.

Working the fields was turning Araminta into a powerful young woman.

[Solemn orchestral music] One day, a fellow enslaved person left his work early and was pursued by the overseer.

When he ran, Araminta tried to block the overseer, who picked up a two-pound weight and hurled it toward the running man.

His throw was off, and the weight struck Harriet with a stunning blow to the head.

She was knocked unconscious and spent months recovering from the injury.

Soon after her injury, she began having sleeping spells.

These spells continued throughout her life.

Vivid images appeared during her spells, and she believed the images she saw allowed her to see the future.

Soon after her injury, she began to exude religious fervor, often crying out in devout religious praise.

[Solemn music continues] [Music becomes triumphant] When Harriet regained her strength, she was hired out to a lumber operation.

Her duties included chopping and hauling logs for 12 hours per day.

Years of such forced labor built a powerful body and a stronger spirit.

She was as physically fit as any modern-day professional athlete, and she could endure hardships as well as any Navy SEAL.

When she turned 19, at her full adult height of five feet, she was as strong as any of the men on the plantation.

Her enslaver often forced her to put on shows of her strength for his fellow slave owners.

[Triumphant music continues] At age 19, Araminta married John Tubman, a free Black man, and took his last name.

[Orchestral interlude] Soon after her enslaver's death in 1849, Tubman learned she was going to be sold south.

Remembering the agonized expressions of her two sisters when they were sold, Tubman had an epiphany.

"I had reasoned this out in my mind.

There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death.

If I could not have one, I would have the other."

She chose liberty.

In September 1849, she liberated herself and headed north.

Before she left, she had to signal her family her intentions without the enslavers catching on.

That night she left, she sang... [Solemn orchestral music] ♪ I'm sorry I'm going to leave you.

♪ ♪ Farewell, oh farewell.

But I'll meet you ♪ ♪ in the morning.

Farewell, oh farewell.

♪ ♪ I'll meet you in the morning.

♪ ♪ I'm bound for the promised land, ♪ ♪ on the other side of Jordan.

♪ ♪ Bound for the promised land.

♪ [Rhythmic orchestral music] Tubman ran to the home of a Quaker woman, who gave her a piece of paper with two names on it and the directions to get to the right house.

Upon reaching the house, she gave the paper to the woman who lived there.

That night, the woman's husband loaded Tubman into a wagon, transported her to another town, and gave her directions to the next station on the Underground Railroad.

[Instruments sounding like a train whistle blaring] The term Underground Railroad was first used in 1831.

[Orchestral music imitating a train] The Underground Railroad was a vast network of people dedicated to rescuing enslaved Americans.

White and Black people worked together to build and safeguard the system that moved thousands of people to the North.

It had no headquarters, no formal leadership, no documents.

It was a clandestine network that carried out dangerous operations using secret routes, safe houses, code words, subterfuge, lanterns, and signals to move their cargo north.

The details of Tubman's escape after the second station are unknown, but she probably traveled only at night and hid during the day.

She followed the North Star, and when the sky was cloudy, she could tell direction by feeling the moss that grew more on the north side of trees.

[Train music slowing down] [Instruments sounding like a train while blaring] [Triumphant orchestral music] Tubman eventually found her way to Philadelphia and found work as a cook or a laundress to support herself.

She chose a new first name, Harriet, and she kept her husband's last name.

She was now Harriet Tubman.

[Orchestral interlude] When Harriet learned that her sister Kizzy was going to be sold south in December 1850, she carried out her first raid.

[Rhythmic orchestral music] She returned to Maryland and guided Kizzy and her children to freedom in the North.

In December 1851, she committed to life as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

During her first raid as a conductor, she guided a group of 10 freedom seekers safely north to Philadelphia and then on to Canada.

From 1852 on, she made at least one trip per year to the South.

These trips lasted weeks to months, each one requiring immense strength, endurance, daring, cunning, and leadership.

[Triumphant orchestral music] When Harriet was leading a group of fugitives, she was firmly in charge, and the fugitives followed her orders.

She regularly told her passengers, "If you're tired, keep going.

If you are scared, keep going.

If you are hungry, keep going.

If you want to taste freedom, keep going."

[Orchestral interlude] ♪ Don't you let nobody turn you 'round ♪ ♪ Turn you 'round, turn you 'round ♪ ♪ Don't you let nobody turn you 'round ♪ ♪ You got to keep the straight and narrow way ♪ [Gentle orchestral music] Harriet talked to God, and she believed that God talked directly back to her.

Her passengers reported that often she would stop and pray, and then insist on changing directions to avoid trouble ahead.

Considering the number of times she knew a trap or ambush was ahead and changed direction to avoid it, it's easy to believe God really was guiding her.

[Gentle music continues] Before long, she earned the nickname Moses.

[Rhythmic orchestral music] ♪ When Israel was in Egypt's land ♪ ♪ Let my people go ♪ Oppressed so hard they could not stand ♪ ♪ Let my people go ♪ Go down, Moses ♪ Way down in Egypt's land ♪ ♪ Tell old Pharaoh Let my people go ♪ Harriet's reputation among abolitionists spread rapidly, and she was invited to speak throughout the North.

When she was introduced as Moses, the famed conductor of the Underground Railroad, audiences erupted with excitement.

Her amazing tales enraptured the audience and helped to raise money for the abolitionist movement.

[Rhythmic music continues then fades] [Martial music] When the Civil War started Harriet informally joined the forces of the Union Army.

At first she worked as a cook, laundress, and nurse.

She had formidable skills as a root doctor and was able to cure a variety of illnesses with herbal remedies.

The soldiers she cured believed she had magical powers.

As the war progressed, Harriet became a secret weapon for the Union Army.

She created a network of scouts and spies that infiltrated enemy lines.

She was able to sneak past pickets and lookouts, and return safely with intelligence on the enemy's position and strength.

[Music swells] On the night of June 2nd, 1863, three Union gunboats slipped quietly up the Combahee River in South Carolina under Harriet's guidance.

Harriet had scouted the river route and learned the locations of Confederate mines in the river.

Harriet guided the gunboats safely around the mines to designated places where fugitive enslaved people were hiding.

[Triumphant orchestral music] Harriet guided the freedom seekers to the boats with a song.

[Rhythmic orchestral music] ♪ Wade in the water ♪ Wade in the water, children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ [Music fades to a steady tone] The raid Harriet led that night rescued more than 750 enslaved Americans.

[Triumphant orchestral music] Harriet was appointed to be the commander of the Intelligence Service of the Department of of the South, and espionage was under her direction.

Union commanders trusted her intelligence gathering so much that they sent troops into battle solely on Harriet's assessments of the enemy's troop strength and location.

Union officers always tipped their caps when meeting Harriet.

[Triumphant music continues] [Music fades] The Civil War ended on April 9th, 1865, and Harriet's 15 years of heroics came to an end.

[Orchestra plays] ["When Johnny Comes Marching Home"] [Brisk orchestral music] In the aftermath of the war, Harriet returned to her home in Auburn and continued her life of service to others.

She opened her home to freed enslaved people.

Sarah Bradford wrote a biography of Tubman's life in 1869 that brought her even more fame.

When Harriet's biography was read to England's Queen Victoria, the queen was so enthralled by the story of her life that she sent Harriet a Diamond Jubilee medal.

Harriet's activism turned towards the cause of women's suffrage.

She regularly traveled to New York City and Boston to speak on the subject.

She inspired crowds at suffrage meetings with tales of her life.

[Brisk music continues] [Fade to solemn orchestral music] [Orchestra playing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"] Harriet's religious fervor continued throughout her life.

She loved attending services at the AME Zion Church in Auburn.

She was a joyful congregant at church services, singing, shouting praises, and dancing with spirit.

[Solemn music continues] Harriet's favorite song was, ♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪ ♪ coming for to carry me home ♪ ♪ Swing low, sweet chariot, ♪ ♪ coming for to carry me home ♪ [A single trumpet playing "Taps"] On March 10th, 1913, surrounded by loved ones, Harriet died of pneumonia.

She was 92 years old.

Shortly before her passing she told her mourners, "I go to prepare a place for you."

Harriet Tubman was buried with full military honors.

["Taps" continues] [Gentle orchestral music] After her death, the people of Auburn erected a bronze tablet that says, "In memory of Harriet Tubman.

With implicit trust in God, she braved every danger and overcame every obstacle.

She possessed extraordinary foresight and judgement so that she truthfully said, 'On my Underground Railroad, I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.'"

[Triumphant orchestral music] [Applause] [Orchestra plays "Battle Hymn of the Republic"] [Swinging orchestral music] [Music swells] [Solemn orchestral music] [Music swells] [Swinging orchestral music] [Music swells] ♪ Mandy vocalizing ♪ Mandy vocalizing [Applause] That was "Battle Hymn of the Republic," [Audience joyful laughter] which was written during the Civil War in 1861 by abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe.

Our next selection is "Kumbaya," whose roots extend to West Africa, the ancestral land of the Gullah, who are African American descendants of enslaved people living in the sea islands of the American southern Atlantic coast.

The word kumbaya means come by here.

The lyrics, "Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya" are a prayer for God's help.

[Gentle orchestral beginning of "Kumbaya"] [Rhythmic orchestral music] [Rhythmic music swells] [Rhythmic music hastens] [Applause] "Amazing Grace" was composed by John Newton in 1772.

The song begins, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

Newton truly was a wretch with one of the most wretched jobs in history, captain of a slave ship.

One night, when his ship was caught in a storm and it appeared they would all die, Newton cried out to God to save his ship.

His ship was spared.

This event inspired Newton to repent, and inspired one of the the most beloved melodies in American history.

[Gentle beginning of "Amazing Grace"] ♪ Amazing ♪ grace, ♪ how sweet ♪ the sound, ♪ that saved ♪ a wretch like me ♪ I once was lost, ♪ but now am found, ♪ was blind, but now ♪ I see ♪'Twas grace that taught ♪ my heart to fear ♪ And grace my fears ♪ relieved ♪ How precious did ♪ that grace appear, ♪ the hour I first ♪ believed [Swelling joyous orchestral music] ♪ Through many ♪ dangers, ♪ toils and snares ♪ I have already ♪ come ♪ 'Tis grace has ♪ brought me safe ♪ thus far ♪ and grace will lead ♪ me home [Gentle orchestral music] ♪ And grace ♪ will lead ♪ me home [Applause] "Ode to Joy" is a poem that was set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven in the last movement of his Ninth Symphony.

"Ode to Joy" is the perfect ending for our concert about the Underground Railroad because it celebrates freedom, joy, and brotherhood.

[Joyous beginning of "Ode to Joy"] [Joyous music begins to swell] [Joyous music hastens and swells] [Joyous music hastens and swells further] [Applause] [Joyous audience applause and shouts] [Swinging orchestral music] ♪♪