This was the first the women and children had heard of it, although Smalls recently had told wife Hannah. She had known that Smalls longed to escape but hadn’t realized that he was formulating a plan and intended to execute it. She was taken aback but quickly regained her composure and told him, “It is a risk, dear, but you and I, and our little ones must be free. I will go, for where you die, I will die...The other women were less steadfast. They cried and screamed when they learned what they had stumbled into, and the men struggled to quiet them. ...Later, once the shock had worn off, those women admitted that they were glad for a chance at freedom...