Alice

Do you, Alice...

take Joseph...

to be your husband,

in sickness and in health,

until distance do you part?

I do.

And do you, Joseph,

take Alice...

to be your wife,

in sickness and in health,

until distance do you part?

I do.

I now pronounce you...

man and wife.

Joseph! Joseph!

Joseph!

The Lord has decided that He needed to test us.

Mr. Paul?

The deed has been done.

It wasn't the rabbits?

Your arrogance blinded you, Joseph.

We'll note it for Sunday.

Now, grab one end.

He said,

"If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord, your God,

and do that which is right in His eyes...

give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes,

I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians.

For I am the Lord, your healer."

Mr. Paul. Oh, Mr. Paul! Mr. Paul, I caught a rabbit!

- -

Don't even think about helping him up.

He did this on his own. He can get up on his own.

Y'all heard him. Back to work!

Back to work.

Back to work, boy.

- -

- Hold still. -

Ruthie? You can't be sneaking over here unplanned like this.

As the oldest woman in this bunch,

I think I can do just about anything I wanna do.

And right now, I wanna see my son.

Best not to hear those stories tonight, Alice.

Her reading's the only thing we got.

We can't keep doing this.

We can't keep letting Mr. Paul do what he wants.

It's a choice we don't have to make.

If any one of us start actin' up, you know what would happen.

We'd all die.

There's 12 of us. There's one of him.

Three if you count Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Aaron.

Not all of us had the teaching from Mr. Paul you had.

How? The men that hunt runaways work at night.

We've all heard the stories.

I ain't never heard of them hunting in the day.

- It won't work, Alice. - She ain't wrong for thinking about it.

None of us are.

There's gotta be something else.

A bunch of white men out there waiting...

to kill us, keep us, or sell us.

I need to speak to my wife. Alone.

- Trade places with you. - Paul knows.

About us.

About everything.

No, my brothers and sisters! This was no messenger from God.

This was a warning from the devil himself.

Even in our gracious state of Georgia...

on God-given land,

the devil has ways of sending an emissary.

He said, "You must continue to be fruitful.

Not only for yourselves, but for your domestic livestock.

For they too must be bathed in the bounty of birth.

Or I will... take it all away."

I need to have a word with you.

How long has it been since we lost your beloved?

Long time ago.

I've always tried my best to take care of you. Haven't I?

You wanna be inside? Is that it?

- No, sir. - A home life.

This is what you're longing for, isn't it?

When your wife passed, I should have married you off.

You could've had sons working by your side.

Mr. Paul, I...

Our neighbor, Brother Levi, has offered one of his domestics to be your bride.

I'm happy, Mr. Paul.

I work hard. I... I don't need...

The message was clear. You need to be fruitful.

Along with the other domestics.

This is... This is a big thing Brother Levi is doing for us.

He hasn't been as blessed with his domestics.

We've agreed that the first child will rightfully go to him.

You'll leave this week to...

To procreate.

And then when the pregnancy is confirmed, you can return.

This is so much bigger than... than us.

Daniel's coming home tomorrow.

And Rachel.

She's been gone a long time now.

Your mind's not what it used to be, Mother.

It's Sunday.

I said it's Sunday.

I know.

You go on ahead of me.

What about Mrs. Bennett?

Ruth can put her to bed.

Nobody said you could sit there.

You think you look like this?

I just looked at the picture. I didn't...

You don't read good enough to understand... the meaning, Alice.

Well, I... I only taught you, so you could read to me as a domestic.

Understand?

Understand?

- Yes. - Good.

Sit.

On the bed.

Have you ever thought about running away?

Pondering is only gonna make you feel worse.

Have you ever thought about it?

We don't... we don't talk about that.

I didn't ask you if you talked about it.

I asked you if you thought about it.

Used to.

But I just chose not to see things out of my control.

That kinda thinking will get you killed.

You ever hear stories about anyone making it out?

Your grandaddy...

...once said he... he saw a man.

One of us.

As if...

As if he just fell from the sky.

Could start a fire with his hand.

Mm-hmm.

He's still out there.

My daddy...

buried him over in that corral.

Strangest looking man he'd ever seen.

- Did you see him? - No, I wasn't... I wasn't trying to.

What are you doing?

What are you doing, son? What are you doing?

We can fix those.

You like your schooling?

Well, I bet you have a lot of friends.

Not really.