Zooey Deschanel Who Do You Think You Are? USA

Actress Zooey Deschanel is searching for the truth behind the rumour

that her father's ancestors were abolitionists.

"Testimony against the sin of slavery."

She uncovers conflict...

List of the slaves? I don't like this.

-..bloodshed...

-It was basically a battle.

..and a remarkable woman

who sacrificed everything for what she believed in.

Oh, my God!

Born into a show business family, actress and singer-songwriter

Zooey Deschanel hit the spotlight in the 2003 Christmas classic, Elf.

Since then, Zooey's versatile career has gone from strength to strength.

She's released four acclaimed albums with indie duo She & Him

and stars in the hit sitcom New Girl.

Zooey lives and works in Los Angeles.

I was born in Santa Monica, California, and I grew up here.

I am really close with my parents and my sister,

so family's very important.

My mother always said we came from a long line of strong women

and I would consider myself a feminist,

not even a reluctant feminist, a gung-ho feminist!

My father's mother, Granny,

whose real name is Anne Orr Deschanel,

just passed away and she was a real spitfire.

She was very into human rights

and she was very devoted to ending slavery worldwide.

She comes from a Quaker family.

The Quakers are activists and they're very liberal.

So my granny was really political.

I mean, she got arrested for chaining herself to a fence outside

a nuclear power plant when she was 80.

I can see myself in her strong will.

I can relate to her on those levels and getting up in arms about things.

So I want to find out who her ancestors were.

I'm curious about it all because I want to know where I came from

and all of this contributes to who we are.

Granny came from a long line of abolitionists

and in her later years she definitely told a story about

someone spearheading the abolitionist movement before the Civil War.

'So I don't know exactly what the connection is there and now that

'Granny has passed on, I'd really love to find more out.'

THEY EXCHANGE GREETINGS

Zooey's starting her journey

by meeting her parents to see what they can tell her

about her grandmother's side of the family.

So I was wondering if you guys could tell me a little bit more

about Granny's family?

My mother's side of the family were mostly Quakers.

-Right.

-My grandfather, Adrian Van Bracklin Orr,

grew up in a little town outside of Philadelphia

and this is a picture of the family.

Yeah, I've seen this picture before, but I didn't know who was who.

So, can you tell me?

-OK, well...

-That's Adrian, right?

-..that's my grandfather.

Granny's father.

Yes. And that's my great-grandfather, Joseph.

And then your great-grandmother, what was her name?

-Martha Elizabeth, right? Martha Elizabeth Pownall.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Zooey has confirmed the name of her great-grandfather - Adrian Orr -

and Joseph Orr and Martha Pownall - her great-great-grandparents,

all members of the Quaker religious movement.

I mean, the Quakers actually were the first religion to come

-out against slavery.

-It's pretty amazing because they believed

in gender equality, too.

It's racial, gender, religious freedom.

The Quakers are pretty much against war of any form and, you know,

-they've always been...

-They're pacifists.

Yeah, so there were stories about the Pownall family being involved

with, you know, the abolitionists and that sort of thing

but I really don't know the details.

OK, so where do you think I should go to find out more about the

-Pownall Family?

-The Philadelphia Public Library would be great.

There are a lot of records there

because Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers.

Great. I guess I'm going to Philadelphia, then.

-I guess so.

-Well, thank you, guys.

-All right.

-Yeah.

'It was really fun to sit down with my parents'

because they've always been interested in family history.

It's not often you get the opportunity to

research your roots and be in the place that your ancestors were and

I think that's a really incredible opportunity and so I am excited.

Zooey is heading to Philadelphia on the trail of her Quaker ancestors.

Zooey has arranged to meet Quaker historian Max Carter

at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Max has started researching the Pownall family in Pennsylvania.

He may be able to help Zooey's search

for abolitionist ancestors.

So, we did considerable research in the Quaker

-minutes in the records of Friends meetings.

-Ah-ha.

So, we put together this family tree.

This is so cool.

OK, so I see myself and my sister.

This is my mother and my father.

And then... Granny Annie.

Here's Joseph Moffitt Orr and Martha Elizabeth Pownall.

I saw a picture of her and her family.

George Pownall, his parents were Levi Pownall and Sarah Henderson.

My four times great-grandmother.

Sarah Henderson sounds very familiar to me.

I know I've heard this name before.

And then I see her parents -

Elinor Brinton and Thomas Henderson.

-So, everyone was Quaker.

-Lots of Quaker names there.

I wonder if there's any way we can find out

more about Sarah Henderson and her family?

That would require looking through the male line.

We can look up the census records

in the 1800 census.

And look in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

OK, we're at the Pennsylvania Septennial Census.

Right. The Septennial Census was a census taken by the Commonwealth

-of Pennsylvania...

-OK.

-..to provide records for taxation and...

-Right.

-..representation.

-There it is. Thomas Henderson.

-Thomas Henderson.

"A list of the slaves...?

"..owned by persons residing within the county of Lancaster."

I don't like this.

-Thomas Henderson had one slave.

-Mm-hmm.

My grandmother who... whose family this is...

she fought worldwide slavery so it's very surprising to find out that

there was a person in our, in this particular line, that had a slave.

Well, it's interesting.

We found that we didn't have Thomas Henderson in the Quaker records.

So that indicates he was not a Quaker.

That's very interesting.

So, why did she marry this dude?

Because the Quakers are so anti-slavery and for Elinor Brinton

to marry a man who had a slave, obviously he wasn't Quaker.

Right. Well, Quakers emphasise marriage for love.

It was one of the few religious professions that gave women

-equal rights...

-Right.

-..with men.

In the wider society, women didn't have much voice.

So, Elinor Brinton, your five times great-grandmother, could speak up.

They made their own decisions.

And this was uncommon for women in the 1700s to have a voice,

-to have authority.

-Very interesting.

And so she would have been raised strong.

-She would have been willing to follow her own heart.

-Right.

-And who knows what the household might have been like...

-Right.

..with a strong Quaker woman marrying a non-Quaker,

-raising another young Quaker woman.

-Yeah.

I'm thinking Sarah Henderson must have taken after her mother

since she was Quaker and she married a Quaker, Levi Pownall.

So, I'm wondering what side of the issue she fell on.

For that, we'll have to do further research.

Swarthmore College, which has one of the best repositories

of Quaker records in North America, is just down the road.

Wonderful. That's great. Thank you so much.

I'm really curious about Sarah Henderson

because I had heard that name before from Granny.

And then the fact that Elinor,

my five times great-grandmother married Thomas... I was really

surprised because she's a Quaker and anti-slavery and he had a slave.

And, so, I really, really want to find out what kind of person

Sarah Henderson was as an adult because as a Quaker I would

think she would have an opinion about slavery.

I'm assuming she had done something interesting for my grandmother

to have mentioned her.

Zooey is heading to the Friends Historical Library

in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, to meet historian Stacey Robertson.

Stacey has been searching for records

on Zooey's four-times great-grandmother.

Under both her maiden name, Sarah Henderson,

and her married name, Sarah Pownall.

We're going to start with this.

This is the Sadsbury monthly Quaker meeting women's minutes.

From 1845 to 1882.

-I'm wondering who she is at this point.

-Exactly.

Yeah. OK.

So, Sadsbury monthly meeting,

fifth day of first month of 1848.

So, what age would Sarah have been?

Well, actually, we know that Elinor was married in 1791.

OK. So if this is 1848.

-Sarah couldn't have been older than 57.

-Right.

"A joint committee of men and women friends..."

-And friends means Quakers...

-Exactly.

"..were appointed to confer

"encouraging the members of our society to be faithful

"against the sin of slavery.

"To which service the following friends were appointed."

Sarah Pownall.

That's wonderful.

So, she has been appointed to a committee

that is rallying to inspire

a more impassioned approach to ending slavery.

That's exactly what she's doing.

For a person to be an abolitionist in this time, was that a common thing?

Not at all.

In fact, for Sarah to participate in this committee

meant that she was willing to be an outspoken opponent of slavery

in a time when being an outspoken opponent of slavery

-was very dangerous.

-Really?

-Yes.

As you know, 1848 is about 13 years

-before the beginning of the Civil War.

-Right.

-The north had already freed slaves by this time.

-Right.

But that didn't mean that northerners, by and large,

were abolitionists. They really weren't.

-Yeah.

-So, they condemned these people as fanatics and zealots.

-Wow!

Abolitionists who spoke out

-in mainstream northern society were often mobbed.

-Really?

They were kicked out of their own churches.

It was a very, very brave and courageous thing for her to do.

-It's really inspiring.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

So, I'm wondering, what would Sarah and the other members

of this committee have done to help fight slavery?

We have one more document for you to look at.

It is related to this committee.

OK. Sadsbury monthly meeting.

1848.

-OK, so this is a little, sort of, pamphlet.

-Mmm-hmm.

"Dear Friends. We feel constrained to invite you to join us

"in the inquiry against slavery,

"seeing that the evil has been steadily increasing.

"Our moral vision has been measurably obscured.

"We have been content to live upon the labours of others,

"forgetting that it is in the sweat of our face

"that we are to eat bread."

So, meaning, we need to do work ourselves.

-We shouldn't have slaves do it.

-Exactly.

-Yeah, OK.

"And whether we are not striking hands with the oppressor,

"when we lend our support to a government that sanctions

"and perpetuates his wrongs.

So, basically, they're saying that they don't want to support

a government that is turning a blind eye

to people who are using slave labour and owning slaves.

It's a real condemnation of a government that accepts slavery.

That's a really strong statement. Wow!

Slavery was an incredibly powerful institution.

So, what they're talking about is really serious.

The fact that these people stood up and said, "This is not OK,

"we have been...we have been desensitized

"to how terrible this thing is."

It's incredible and horrible

to think that it was accepted amongst so many people.

And it was.

I mean, and the bravery of these people is pretty amazing.

-Yes.

-I'm sorry. It's really...

-I know!

-This letter's so beautiful. OK.

"We believe a responsibility therefore rests on us

"to enter into...

"an individual examination, how far we are guilty

"concerning our brother in that we see the anguish of his soul

"and will not hear him."

And that's saying we can't let these people be enslaved.

-They're our brothers.

-Exactly.

-OK.

And then it is signed, Sarah Pownall.

-There's my relative, one of 12 people.

-Yeah!

-In this letter.

-Exactly!

-It's so exciting.

I think it's six men and six women.

So, another testimony to their commitment to equality.

-That's really cool.

-Yeah.

-What an impassioned letter.

-Isn't it?

Yeah! It's truly moving.

I feel honoured to be related to one of these people.

They were very brave.

Supporting my mother's theory that I come

from a long line of strong women,

but it's an even longer line than I realised.

Absolutely. This is one strong woman.

Yesterday, all I had was a family tree,

but now I have an identity for this woman.

I can't wait to find out more. She's so exciting and interesting.

She is. She is.

Well, we're actually going to send you

-to the Lancaster Historical Society.

-Oh, great!

Right, which is the location where Sarah lived in Lancaster County

and this is a location that is really

kind of a hotbed of abolitionism.

OK. Thank you so much for showing this to me.

Oh, you are so welcome!

It's so exciting.

It was really interesting today to look at some of the records

from the anti-slavery committee that my ancestor Sarah

was a part of, because to have been a woman

and stand up for what she believed in at that time, it's really moving.

It does make me feel closer to my granny, because she was a person

that devoted herself in a way that I think was really admirable.

I like seeing that spirit come up, generation after generation.

Sarah was very passionate and so I'm just curious to see

what other things she did to fight against slavery.

And I'm hoping to see a picture of Sarah.

Zooey is heading to Lancaster, Pennsylvania,

to try to find out more about Sarah Pownall's work

in the anti-slavery movement. She's meeting Dr Nikki Taylor.

I'm hoping she can tell me more about Sarah Pownall's work

in the anti-slavery movement.

-Hi!

-Hi.

-I'm Nikki Taylor. Have a seat.

So, I know that my four times great-grandmother, Sarah Pownall,

was a part of an anti-slavery committee here in Lancaster County.

And I wanted to find out more about the work that they did.

And I was wondering why Lancaster County

had so much abolitionist activity.

There are two reasons why this community

was so strongly committed to abolitionism.

-The first is the high population of Quakers here.

-Yes.

And the second is the county's proximity to the Mason-Dixon Line,

which, as you know, was the dividing line

between the slave state of Maryland and the free state of Pennsylvania.

Let me show you a document that the Lancaster County History Community

has put together that documents some key historical events

-in the abolitionist movement.

-OK, great!

So, this map has Lancaster County and the Mason-Dixon Line.

I can only imagine

-that there might have been some underground railroad...

-Exactly.

..sort of activity around here.

OK, so, Sadsbury Township.

There's where my four times great-grandmother,

Sarah Pownall, was from.

Parker House at Pownall Farm!

Is that my...

-is that my Pownall?

-Yes, yes.

Oh my gosh! OK.

Parker House at Pownall Farm, demolished in the 19th century.

"This was a great loss to America's historical and cultural landscape.

"It was located a short distance to the southeast

"on the farm of Levi and Sarah Pownall, Quaker farmers."

-So, this was on my family's farm?

-Exactly. Exactly.

Very interesting!

The Parker House was the home of William Parker and his wife.

And William Parker was a man who had been born into slavery in Maryland.

He escaped and ended up in Lancaster County where he settled.

-He rented land from Sarah and Levi Pownall for years.

-Oh, wow!

But the most important thing about Parker is that he was a conductor

-and a station master on the Underground Railroad.

-Oh!

Highly illegal, the Underground Railroad

was a vast network of people, helping slaves escape

to free states or Canada.

Station masters hid runaways in their homes,

while conductors guided them from one station,

or safe house, to the next.

Hundreds of abolitionists, black and white,

risked their lives to help roughly 100,000 slaves to freedom.

On their land, it was there that he hid a lot of fugitive slaves.

-How wonderful!

-Yeah.

-So, he played a huge part in the Underground Railroad.

-Yes, he did.

So, this brings us to the question

of how much did they know about what he was doing.

I can only imagine that they must have known

and approved of this Underground Railroad station.

So, I'd like to read a few things on this map,

because I'm looking at it and it has the Christiana Riot marker.

"This Pennsylvania state historical marker

"describes the tenant home of William and Eliza Parker,

"site of the Christiana Riot."

What does that mean?

Right now, we call it the Christiana Resistance,

but back then, it was denounced as a riot.

What it was was an event in which free blacks from Lancaster County

had a stand-off with slave owners from Maryland.

It was one of the most important events in American history,

-leading to the Civil War, in fact.

-Really? Yes.

I've arranged for you to have a private tour at the Pownall farm.

-Really?

-Yeah. For you to learn more about the Christiana Resistance.

Wow! That's so exciting! Thank you so much!

I'm really curious to find out what happened

on my four times great-grandparents' farm.

I mean, even just to have been there for this major historical event

must have been incredible.

I don't know how violent or how dramatic this resistance was.

So, I am a little bit nervous, because I really admire Sarah.

I do feel protective of her.

So, I'm really curious to go to the farm

and hear what happened there.

I can only imagine she must have been involved.

Zooey is heading to the Pownall family farm

to meet historian, Fergus Bordewich,

and find out more information about the Christiana Resistance.

-It's a pleasure to meet you.

-Pleasure to meet you, too!

Here we are.

This is where William Parker's house stood,

-right out in the middle of this ploughed field.

-Wow.

In fact, Sarah's house was right over there

about a quarter of a mile away.

As you know, this was the centre of the Underground Railroad

in this area.

-And William Parker was himself a fugitive slave.

-Right.

And Parker also headed, essentially, an Underground Railroad militia,

made up of African-Americans who were determined to fight,

rather than to allow anybody to be carried back into slavery.

It seems that the state of affairs with slavery had gotten worse.

Well, the fugitive slave law was one of the nastiest, cruellest

pieces of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress.

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 required the federal government

to help slave owners and bounty hunters capture fugitive slaves

in northern free states and return them to slavery.

Because accused runaways weren't represented in court,

even free men were dragged away and sold,

without any chance to defend themselves.

This contentious law also required citizens, like Sarah,

to turn in fugitive slaves

and threatened to imprison anyone who refused.

Suddenly, no African-Americans were guaranteed freedom.

And the Underground Railroad became more important than ever.

So, basically, the Federal Government was saying it was illegal

not to return slaves that had run away.

-That's precisely what the law was.

-That's shocking.

The Fugitive Slave Law turbocharged the abolitionist movement.

The Underground Railroad was the radical edge of abolitionism.

They were the people who were willing to put their lives

on the line, breaking the law, in order to help fugitives.

So, what was the Christiana Resistance?

It happened September 11th, 1851.

There was a slave owner named Edward Gorsuch.

-Several of his slaves had run away from Maryland.

-OK.

Edward Gorsuch learned that two of those fugitives

were here in Lancaster County, and Gorsuch came up here,

seeking those fugitive slaves. And he traced them

-to William Parker's house.

-Right on my family's farm.

Yes. In fact, Sarah could see and probably hear

-everything happening here out her window.

-Oh, my gosh.

So, I'm wondering if you have any information about her involvement.

I do.

This is an excerpt from one of the best and earliest accounts

of the Underground Railroad, written just after the Civil War.

"For some days before this conflict, reports afloat that an attack

"was soon to be made on Parker's house.

"Sarah Pownall had a conversation with them, the night before the riot,

"and urged him, if slaveholders should come,

"not to lead the coloured people to resist the Fugitive Slave Law

"by force of arms, but to escape to Canada.

"He replied, 'The laws for personal protection are not made for us

"'and we are not bound to obey them.

"'If a fight occurs, I want the whites to keep away.

"'They have a country and may obey the laws, but we have no country.'"

-Wow.

-Quite a statement, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is quite a statement.

He's making it clear that he and his group are going to fight.

And Sarah and Levi Pownall were Quakers,

so they did not believe in violence.

So, after this conversation, what did William Parker do?

Did he listen to Sarah or did he stay and try to fight a battle?

He armed himself.

On the morning of September 11th, Edward Gorsuch and the posse

that he collected in Philadelphia,

that included members of his own family, his son, Dickinson Gorsuch,

and a number of police, they came up the road

you see across the valley here.

They surrounded the house. They were armed.

Parker and his men, and his very brave wife, Eliza, are in the house.

They're all armed.

When it becomes pretty clear that there's going to be a confrontation,

Eliza, who herself is an escaped slave, takes a horn

and trumpets across the valley.

Maybe as many as 60 people, mostly African-Americans,

drop their work implements and they come running

here to the house and including...

-So, there was...it was basically a battle.

-It was a battle.

-Oh, my God!

I mean, I can't imagine being Sarah and Levi Pownall

looking out their window and seeing, basically, a battle on their land.

-I think it must have hurt them.

-Yeah.

As people of deep Quaker conviction, to see violence

about to happen on their property right in front of them,

and to be powerless to stop it.

Right. So, tell me what happened when the battle started.

The two groups collided outside the house.

Shots were fired on both sides.

Edward Gorsuch was killed.

His son, Dickinson, was almost killed, shot, beaten to the ground.

There was a melee. The police ran.

Oh, my goodness!

Most people were frightened of black people

and they were frightened of black people with weapons in their hands

beating, shooting white people, even though...

They were defending themselves.

..even though they were defending themselves.

The fugitives were not captured.

-They were saved and they were protected.

-That's amazing.

So, what was the aftermath of the Christiana Resistance?

Everybody knew about this.

Newspapers across the United States reported on what happened here.

President Fillmore is following it.

The President's chief advisor told him there has to be a reaction.

-The government has to act.

-OK.

This led to a reign of terror in Lancaster County.

It was said, at the time, that Negros were hunted

like partridges across Lancaster County. Their homes were invaded.

People were dragged out, arrested, interrogated, beaten.

White abolitionists were also dragged in by the authorities.

People didn't know WHAT was going to happen to them.

So, to be an abolitionist at this time must have been dangerous?

Wow!

You always think, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves,

but there were so many people that assisted.

People like William Parker, his wife, Eliza Parker,

-emancipated themselves.

-Right.

-They didn't wait for Abraham Lincoln

and they did it with the assistance of people like Sarah Pownall.

OK. So, the Christiana Resistance happened here.

My ancestors are right over there on that farm.

What did they do?

That is a good question and there's a lot to say about it.

Let's go over to Moore's Memorial Library in Christiana,

and I think you'll see things that'll interest you.

-OK. Great!

-Let's go.

It's shocking to think that this sort of violent turning point

in the road leading up to the Civil War

happened on my ancestors' property.

It seems to speak about a government that was incredibly flawed.

So, I'm really proud that my ancestors were involved,

at this time, in the abolitionist movement.

I don't know what I'm expecting to see.

I think I know who Sarah Pownall is.

I think I know how she would react to this.

I think she would help William Parker and his family

and I'm just hoping to see some evidence of this.

I've asked the library to pull some documents for us.

I can't wait.

Some Recollections Of A Long And Unsuccessful Life by George Steele.

-He had a sense of humour. Let's go to page ten.

-OK.

Let's start there.

I'm interested to see what this is.

"When the fighting was over at the riot house,

"Parker and Levi Pownall Junior ran to get a horse and wagon.

"But before they geared up,

"a neighbour brought the wounded man over.

"At night, the day of the riot, Dickinson Gorsuch,

"the wounded man, was not expected to live.

"There were a great many of his friends and neighbours

"in the Pownall house and the house was surrounded by a crowd."

Interesting. So, they actually took in...

Dickinson Gorsuch, the son of Edward Gorsuch.

I'm so surprised.

Well, I guess they were, sort of, kindly, Quaker folk

and if there was an injured man they would take him in.

"Elizabeth Pownall, who afterwards became my wife..."

So this is written by the son-in-law of Sarah Pownall.

-Exactly.

-OK.

"..and her sister Ellen were washing dishes in the kitchen

"when Parker and Pinkney walked in through the out kitchen door."

Can you just remind me who Pinkney is?

He was William Parker's brother-in-law.

Right. So, they're in hot water and they have to flee. OK.

"Fortunately, the girls had presence of mind enough to blow out

"the candles and open the stair door

"and motion to the two men to go upstairs."

-So they concealed them?

-Yes.

Wow. This is amazing.

"Then Mrs Sarah Pownall,

"who was the best and most capable woman I ever knew,

"whispered to the girls, 'Get a clean pillowcase,

"'and fill it with bread and meat.'

"There was a whispered remonstrance, 'All these people in the house

"'to feed and barely enough bread for breakfast.'

"Mrs Pownall whispered back, 'Mix more bread.'

"The pillowcase was filled.

"Levi Pownall Junior went upstairs

"and provided the men with clothes and hats."

So, he gave them disguises.

"George Pownall took the pillowcase of food out to the orchard,

"and left it at the foot of the queen apple tree."

So, that's my three times great-grandfather.

So, he was passing food to them,

and his brother, Levi Pownall Junior, was disguising them.

"At a favourable time, the two coloured men were brought down

"and the two Miss Pownalls walked beside them to the gate.

"If the guards saw them,

"they supposed them to be callers on the young ladies."

They had the enemy in their house

and they were able to disguise Parker and Pinkney

as gentlemen callers. Yes.

"One morning when the Pownall Family came down

"they found a letter under the front door addressed

"to Elizabeth B Pownall. It said,

"'Parker is safe in Canada.'"

So, that's pretty extraordinary.

It was an incredibly heroic operation.

Clearly, it was very complex.

It was undertaken while the entire community

was under hostile occupation.

That would seem to me that they have done this before.

No question about it.

This is proof that your ancestor, Sarah Pownall, and her entire family

were deep, deep, deep in the Underground Railroad.

Wow.

It's so encouraging to think that at this time a woman could have been

doing something this brave and this cutting edge and this political.

-I'm... It's really exciting to think that this is my family.

-Indeed.

So, it sounds like Christiana was in real turmoil at this point,

and I'm wondering what happened in the aftermath

and where the Pownalls were in all of this?

The Pownalls are not arrested. Remarkably, considering that we know

they were harbouring the two most wanted men in Lancaster County.

-Right.

-38 of their neighbours, black and white, are arrested

and put on trial for treason

for making war against the United States - for daring to fight back.

-Wow.

-They see those neighbours who is one of them

going to trial for treason.

Now, it took the jury only 15 minutes to acquit that man,

because the evidence didn't back it up.

The government was so humiliated by that defeat that it abandoned

charges against the remaining people.

And the result was a collapse, really, of federal prosecutions.

Now, there's a man who is so affected by what's happened here

that it helps embitter him against the United States government.

He's a friend of the Gorsuch family.

His name is John Wilkes Booth.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

And Booth writes how deeply he was angered by the crime committed

against the Gorsuch Family and how it was never paid for.

And this is one of the things that John Wilkes Booth

is carrying with him in 1865.

Was the anger about the Christiana Resistance.

Yeah, and assassinates Abraham Lincoln.

That's incredible.

Open this.

Oh, my goodness.

There she is.

That's Sarah Pownall? Wow.

-She has a very kind face.

-Yes.

This is wonderful to see.

This means so much more to me knowing what she did in her life

and what kind of a person she was.

I feel I have a real respect for this great woman.

In fact, I think to me she's a hero.

And I just admire her intelligence and her bravery.

They believed in a higher law that required them to do the right thing,

rather than something that happened to be legal, but was morally wrong.

Yeah.

Cos this is so much greater than just a family.

This is a huge movement and led to the...

..free country we live in now.

She made a direct contribution to that here at Christiana.

Well, that's really amazing.

So, I knew cos I had read it in my family tree

that Sarah Pownall had passed away in September of '52.

She died within that year of the resistance.

-Do we know how she died?

-I don't think we do.

Perhaps the stress of the resistance really weighed on Sarah.

I've brought you a map of the Sadsbury cemetery.

-So she's buried not far from here.

-A few minutes' drive.

I think I'm going to go pay my respects.

I've become so attached to this person over the past few days,

and to see her face and put a face with the name, and the story,

and all of the things that she did really completed the picture.

I was really sad to learn that Sarah Pownall died right after

the Christiana Resistance because she died before the Civil War

and before emancipation.

To not have been able to see that in her lifetime is sort of sad.

So, visiting Sarah Pownall's grave

I think will be a really sweet ending to this journey.

I can see some of the qualities that I see in Sarah Pownall,

you know, in my grandmother and Granny,

and to see how far back it goes is really exciting.

To truly understand how extraordinary it was for a woman

at this time to be involved politically like Sarah Pownall was

is just incredible.

And it makes me realise how much we can change.

It makes me really inspired

to encourage the next generation of strong women.

I don't think I could've possibly been prepared for how moving

and amazing this journey was,

and I don't think I could have ever imagined I came from such heroes.

This journey makes me want to be a better person,

and you can't put a price on being inspired.