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Thank you. It's a warm fall day in 1864 on a sheep farm in Mahaya, Texas.

Nine-year-old enslaved shepherd William Moore taps a wooden stick on a fence as he steers a dozen sheep into a pen.

After securing the gate, William slowly heads back toward the farmhouse, swishing the stick as though it's an imaginary sword. But his playful mood is broken by an agonizing scream

from the far side of the building. William knows the voice instantly. It's his mother.

William sprints around the house to find his mother bound to a tree, a bloody stripe across her bare back.

Standing over her is the farmer, Tom Waller, whip in hand.

He raises the whip high into the air, ready to strike again.

But without thinking of the consequences, William picks up a rock and flings it out.

Waller crumbles to the ground, bleeding from where the rock struck him.

William then rushes to his mother.

He tries to untie the rope that's bound her to the tree, but the knots are stuck fast.

Then he hears footsteps behind him. William turns to see Mary

Walla, his enslaveur's daughter, hustling down from the farmhouse porch. If Mary saw William

throw the stone, he's as good as dead. But to William's surprise, Mary ignores her bleeding father

and helps him loosen the knots that tie his mother. Once William's mother is free, Mary ignores her bleeding father and helps him loosen the knots that tie his mother.

Once William's mother is free, Mary eases her to her feet and pulls her clothes back on.

Then she hurries the mother and son away from the farmhouse and into a new life as fugitives.

More than a year after the Emancipation Proclamation officially ended slavery in the United States,

...