'Aunt Hettie' tells her riveting story of celebrating her freedom from slavery. She and other slaves gathered at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1862 to hear the reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The Civil War was raging following the Union Army's victory over the Confed­erates at The Battle of Antietam. This decisive victory prompted President Lincoln to publicly declare his plans for Emancipation and then allow Blacks to serve in the Union Army as free-men.

Aunt Hettie was beaten for trying to learn how to read, thus making the reading of The Emancipation Procla­mation more poignant. She recounts her triumphs of overcoming the oppression of slavery.

She is portrayed by Sandra Quick , a member of educational storytellers known as "We've Known Rivers."