♪ Voice: Has the God who made the White man and the Black left any record declaring us a different species?

Are we not sustained by the same power, supported by the same food, hurt by the same wounds, pleased with the same delights, and propagated by the same means?

And should we not then enjoy the same liberty and be protected by the same laws?

♪ Some consider us as much property as a house or a ship and think how anxious we must be to raise ourselves from this degrading state.

James Forten.

Narrator: James Forten was born free in Philadelphia.

At 9, he had been in the crowd at the Pennsylvania State House that heard the Declaration of Independence read to the public for the very first time.

Forten took the promise of the Declaration to heart and never questioned whether its self-evident truths applied to him.

♪ Now, in the summer of 1781, Forten was 14, old enough to fight for his country.

With his mother's permission, he went down to the docks, signed on to a privateer, and set out to sea.

Forten was one of 20 men and boys of color in a crew of 200.

For privateers eager to attract volunteers, race was no barrier.

♪ His first voyage was a triumph, but the second was a disaster.

His ship was overtaken and captured by a British warship.

♪ Once aboard, the captain's son befriended him, and the captain offered to release him if he were willing to sail with the boy to England.

Forten refused.

He could not turn his back on his country.

[Gulls squawking] Instead, he joined hundreds of American prisoners huddled below decks aboard the notorious British prison ship the "Jersey" moored in the East River off Brooklyn-- dark, fetid, rife with disease.

[Bell rings]