WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 align:middle line:84% I want to move away from this manuscript for a second 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:05.780 align:middle line:84% and really, for a time, new work on collecting. 00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:08.400 align:middle line:84% We're on the border here, and I think a lot about-- 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.558 align:middle line:84% I do a lot of history work and sometimes I 00:00:10.558 --> 00:00:12.600 align:middle line:84% think well it's the past and what does it matter. 00:00:12.600 --> 00:00:16.023 align:middle line:84% And then I remember that it always 00:00:16.023 --> 00:00:17.190 align:middle line:90% resonates with where we are. 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:20.280 align:middle line:84% So I read this poem once in Virginia. 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:23.650 align:middle line:84% The thing that I've described in this poem 00:00:23.650 --> 00:00:26.698 align:middle line:84% was a common way for slaves to escape in border states. 00:00:26.698 --> 00:00:28.740 align:middle line:84% You couldn't do it much further south in Virginia 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:30.090 align:middle line:90% because you would-- 00:00:30.090 --> 00:00:32.310 align:middle line:90% it was bad. 00:00:32.310 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:84% And I read this poem and somebody 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:36.630 align:middle line:84% said I can't believe people used to do that. 00:00:36.630 --> 00:00:39.060 align:middle line:84% And I said, 'do you not read the paper? 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:43.240 align:middle line:84% People do this all the time still.' 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:44.260 align:middle line:90% "Dinah in the Box". 00:00:44.260 --> 00:00:47.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:47.050 --> 00:00:52.810 align:middle line:84% "Dinah spent twenty hours with her face by the breathing hole. 00:00:52.810 --> 00:00:56.590 align:middle line:84% Her body curled like a nursing child, 00:00:56.590 --> 00:01:00.490 align:middle line:84% wondering what order of things she would offer 00:01:00.490 --> 00:01:04.390 align:middle line:90% the man who opened her crate. 00:01:04.390 --> 00:01:07.690 align:middle line:84% She had a particular trick that worked on Jennings when 00:01:07.690 --> 00:01:09.550 align:middle line:90% she needed him to understand. 00:01:09.550 --> 00:01:14.470 align:middle line:84% She meant to please but Dinah wouldn't be a bachelor's wench 00:01:14.470 --> 00:01:17.140 align:middle line:90% in Philadelphia. 00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:20.740 align:middle line:84% What angle would her legs take that first night 00:01:20.740 --> 00:01:27.070 align:middle line:84% in Philadelphia, in relation to the woman spot between them. 00:01:27.070 --> 00:01:31.480 align:middle line:84% Not this infant's pose she was confined to now. 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:35.530 align:middle line:84% Not any of the poses favored by Jennings. 00:01:35.530 --> 00:01:38.710 align:middle line:90% What would her hands do. 00:01:38.710 --> 00:01:43.000 align:middle line:84% Free to touch only what they chose. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.760 align:middle line:84% She had twenty hours to remember every way she 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:47.740 align:middle line:90% folded to get into this box. 00:01:47.740 --> 00:01:49.750 align:middle line:84% She took out extra brandy until Jennings railed 00:01:49.750 --> 00:01:51.370 align:middle line:90% against the things he hated. 00:01:51.370 --> 00:01:55.000 align:middle line:90% Taxes, drugs and abolitionists. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.510 align:middle line:84% Turned out, old Harrison, the carpenter, 00:01:58.510 --> 00:02:01.300 align:middle line:90% was suspected to be one. 00:02:01.300 --> 00:02:03.130 align:middle line:90% She tracked Harrison. 00:02:03.130 --> 00:02:08.620 align:middle line:84% And ask what price and means he'd name. 00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:12.790 align:middle line:84% Those two tasks proved more simple than storing up 00:02:12.790 --> 00:02:16.930 align:middle line:84% the coins that slipped from Jennings' pocket to the rug 00:02:16.930 --> 00:02:19.360 align:middle line:90% beside the bed. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:24.940 align:middle line:84% It took Diana seven months to collect enough to buy the box, 00:02:24.940 --> 00:02:29.500 align:middle line:84% and pay Harrison for the bill of lading. 00:02:29.500 --> 00:02:32.620 align:middle line:90% Diana touched her knees. 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:35.350 align:middle line:84% Tracing the hinge inside them that 00:02:35.350 --> 00:02:40.030 align:middle line:84% would straighten in some white man's power. 00:02:40.030 --> 00:02:42.580 align:middle line:90% She wasn't free yet. 00:02:42.580 --> 00:02:44.290 align:middle line:90% But soon. 00:02:44.290 --> 00:02:48.820 align:middle line:84% A man she would make herself trust 00:02:48.820 --> 00:02:52.815 align:middle line:84% would prise open the lid of her crate." 00:02:52.815 --> 00:02:55.710 align:middle line:90% 00:02:55.710 --> 00:02:57.460 align:middle line:90% Thank you.