Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

The story of America's first black Catholic priest begins with a miraculous escape from slavery.

It was 1862, the height of the American Civil War and the young

Augustus Tolton, his mother and two siblings, decided to risk their lives and leave the slave

state of Missouri. A few months earlier, his father had escaped to join the Union Army,

and now the Toltons found themselves pursued through the woods by Confederate soldiers.

The harrowing moment is depicted in a new one-man play titled,

Tulton, from slave to priest.

Played by actor Jim Coleman, Tolton recounted on stage what happened next.

We stayed hidden in the bushes, afraid to breathe, he said.

They dragged us out, but like angels coming down from heaven, we saw Union soldiers.

They smuggled us into a dilapidated rowboat and pushed out into the mighty Mississippi River.

Bullets whizzed over the family's head as the Confederates continued to fire as Tolton's mother rode her children to safety.

With each stroke, she prayed, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,

Coleman's character said in the play.

Once they made it across the muddy river to safety in Illinois,

Tolton's mother broke down into tears.

Augustus Tolton was born in 1854. His parents had him baptized Catholic, the faith of the family

who owned them. After finding their freedom in Illinois, they got directions to the

small settlement of Quincy, where they settled and joined a Catholic church. Tolton's mother

took him to a Catholic school and asked the priest to allow Tolton to study there. In an interview

with the post, Coleman said Tolton was welcomed into one of the Catholic

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