Enslaved

Out on the ocean, looking for sunken slave ships.

[crowd screaming, chain rattling, whipping noise]

When I began this journey, I couldn't imagine

that I would be going back to my roots...

[crowd chanting in native language]

...or that I would be telling the story

of the transatlantic slave trade.

In the governor's bedroom, there's a trap door in the floor

and it leads into the women's dungeon,

and he would just have free access to these women and girls.

The case of the slaves was the same as if horses

had been thrown overboard.

Let me get this straight.

This is currency created to buy a human being.

One human being.

Hey, Sam, how you doing, buddy?

- Morning! - Morning!

I've teamed up with DWP, Diving With a Purpose.

What a morning, out here in the high seas.

Ready to get wet, man?

Some of the best underwater investigators in the world.

Chris, you ready?

All right, thanks for being here, friend.

- I appreciate it. - All right, bro.

More than two million of our ancestors died at sea.

These divers are dedicated to bring to light

their forgotten story.

England was involved in it.

Portugal was involved in it.

The Africans were involved in it.

It's a burial ground and a crime scene.

We are raising the voices of people

who didn't have a voice,

whose voices were also enslaved.

We have to teach our young people

where they came from.

If we don't do it, no one will, ever.

We only talk about the ships that made it.

We never talk about the ones that didn't.

Bring another part of the history of this world

into focus, because people just don't talk about it.

What was really going on with the slave trade?

[sound effect - metal chain clicking]

For me, it all started at my cousin Hilda's.

Hilda's been able to do something uncommon

for most African Americans:

trace our lineage back to the days of slavery.

Hey!

Come on. What you got in here?

Who is that young man there?

That's me.

All right. Beautiful picture.

Sam, I want you to look at some of your history that you have

never seen, and we want you to know it.

When did you have time to do all this?

Do you know that most of the information

in here is by word of mouth?

We followed our ancestry back from Zoe, LaTanya and Sam.

Then we have Elizabeth and Roy.

Yup.

And we have Aunt Pearl and Uncle Edgar,

who is Sam's grandfather.

And then we go to Lillie, who is the mother to Edgar.

And this is Lillie.

Mm-hmm. That's a picture of Lillie.

And Miles is the father to Edgar, Uncle Edgar's daddy.

So this is Miles.

Miles Montgomery. That's him.

- Wow. - Mm-hmm.

And then parents here, Arthur Branham.

- Arthur was born into slavery. - Mm-hmm.

So he was three when slavery ended.

Three years old when slavery ended.

Three. That's right.

And this is his mother, Matilda.

- Who was a slave. - Yes, that's right. Mm-hmm.

- Owned by the Branhams? - Yes.

So they just took their last name.

- Mm-hmm. - They just took their names.

Yes. They owned a lot of slaves.

They were wealthy.

A Judge Branham is the one who fathered Arthur.

You can see his name up there, Joel Branham.

Mm-hmm.

So as far as we know, we're able to trace our ancestry

back to when our relatives were enslaved.

I did my DNA ancestry.

And my ancestors came from Gabon.

And they were from the Benga tribe and I want to see what

that means in terms of who I am and where I came from.

So I would like to know more about how my people lived,

how that played into the kind of person that I am.

Just trying to connect to my roots.

And the best place to do that is here, my ancestral home.

MINISTER NGUEÉMA: Hi Sam! How are you doing?

I am fine, how are you?

- Welcome to Gabon. - Thank you.

Let's go.

[crowd singing in native language, drums]

Oh, my God. This is great.

A lot of energy!

Let's go!

Okay, thank you.

They will initiate you.

It's not like being jumped into a gang, is it?

No. A brotherhood. - It's going to be all right?

- You'll be all right. - All right, fine.

You will be a real Benga.

Anticipation builds...

More than 12 million Africans were enslaved

and trafficked from dozens of outposts established

along the coast of Africa.

The transatlantic slave trade existed for well over

300 years and involved more than 45,000 voyages.

Most ships made it. Many didn't.

In the early 1800s, even after most countries banned the trade,

illegal trafficking was continuing.

My ancestors could have easily ended up on the illegal

Spanish slaver, the "Guerrero."

The "Guerrero" was sailing to Cuba with almost

600 African people on board.

They sailed past the Bahamas.

Stationed there was a British navy ship, the "Nimble."

The "Nimble" was there to intercept illegal slave ships.

They tried to stop "Guerrero."

"Guerrero" took off.

They got into a chase, they got into a gun battle.

Eventually, night fell.

Both ships slammed into

the Florida reef somewhere off Key Largo.

So beneath these waters now are the puzzle pieces that are gonna

help us reconstruct the story of these two shipwrecks.

And that's really become my passion.

I've invited the DWP team to join me

in the search for the "Guerrero."

Hi, Corey!

Hey, guys. How are you?

You guys ready to do a little bit of research?

We are!

So what is this story about the "Guerrero"

and why do you think it's the "Guerrero"?

You know, the story of "Guerrero" is really

the story of two ships:

"Guerrero," the slave ship, and then the British navy schooner

that was chasing it.

And they got into a gun battle

and they both smashed into the reef.

The "Nimble" ran aground and was able to float itself off

the reef by jettisoning iron ballasts and cannonballs.

But the slave ship "Guerrero" crashed into the reef

with such force that it sank.

41 of the captive Africans on board died.

The "Nimble's" crew said they could hear the screams

crossing two miles of ocean.

It had been their duty to save the people on the "Guerrero,"

but instead they had accidentally

chased them to their doom.

We're going to find the "Guerrero."

There could be all kinds of artifacts out there

that are specific to a slave ship.

So here I have some things to show you guys.

Oh!

These are all pieces recovered from the other wrecks.

So what's this guy?

A tooth extractor.

I remember in school, we were taught some slaves

wouldn't eat in protest.

They would remove the teeth so that they could shove food...

- Right. - ...in their mouth.

Just visualizing that is absolutely chilling.

That my ancestor could've had their teeth pulled

to make them eat because they needed to be strong

in order to be bought.

And here is the real telltale artifact.

The essence of the slave trade: a set of shackles.

These were the iron restraints designed

to hold people two by two.

Wrists?

Wrists and generally ankles.

You slid this 'U' onto somebody's ankle.

You took this other 'U', put it on another person's ankle,

and then those people were joined together.

It was shackled to two people 'cause it makes it

way more effective to keep people from running.

Right. If you're, you know, hobbled

to somebody else, you can't swim. You can't run.

- Right. - You can't move.

It was horrible.