It’s 1805 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In this two-part episode, five-year-old Peter escapes slavery with his family. But freedom is shattered when he and his brother are abducted, torn from their mother and everything they know. Peter spends decades surviving the brutality of slavery, longing for his lost family.
Then, an extraordinary twist of fate brings Peter face-to-face with a man who changes his life forever, setting off a daring crusade to outwit a cruel system. While the fate of everything he loves hangs in the balance, love becomes both his greatest risk and his greatest strength.
This is the true story of Peter Still, brother of abolitionist William Still. Told in an immersive, audiobook-style narrative, this episode brings their experiences to life with the intimacy and drama of a historical audiobook.
Based on the following sources:
“The Underground Railroad Records,” by William Still
"The kidnapped and the ransomed. Being the personal recollections of Peter Still and his wife 'Vina,' after forty years of slavery," by Kate E.R.
Pickardhttps://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/theundergroundrailroad/chapter/seth-concklin/
This episode follows Peter Still’s account as recorded in Kate E. R. Pickard’s 1856 book, The Kidnapped and the Ransomed, which presents the boys’ separation as a kidnapping. William Still’s later account (1872) states that their mother left the two sons behind on her second escape attempt. Some historians believe the earlier narrative differs in order to protect the family under the Fugitive Slave Act. For this telling, I chose to stay with Peter’s version of events.