Last night’s episode of WGN America’s Underground was perhaps the most heart wrenching of them all… so far.

Episode 7 of the popular drama is titled ‘Cradle’ and it focuses on how the young were forced to face the harsh realities of slavery.

In case you missed it, read recap + discuss below…

WGN America continues with the highly anticipated premiere of their new original drama, Underground. In Episode 7, Cradle, Noah (Aldis Hodge) and Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) continue to plan their daring 600-mile escape from a Georgia plantation.

Now that the plantation in ruins, Tom Macon (Reed Diamond) forces little James (Maceo Smedley) to work in the cotton fields.

While most viewers have caught on to the fact that James is Macon’s son, it’s clear that he’s just another piece of property to the ‘Massa”.

The beginning of the episode bears the boxing of the sweet treats that James had prevously been enjoying as a child, but we’re soon shown the youngster being prepared for his first day of manual labor as Sam (Johnny Ray Gill) teaches him how to create callouses on his hands to protect them while he’s picking cotton.

Sweet little James’ hands becoming bloody and battered on his first day in the fields and even though he’s just a child, it seems that Bill, the oversee-er is anxious to give him his first ‘stripes’.

I assume beating the child would make Overseer Bill feel better about his life now that he’s survived that bottle neck received from Rosalee… but whatever.

James avoids Bill’s wrath after Sam swaps bags with him. Needless to say, James makes is quota, Sam doesn’t and he ends up taking a beating for his little brother, but not for long. Young James figures out a way to make his quota and to keep his brother safe from the overseer.

James isn’t the only kid going through it this week… there’s Boo, who made it on the train with her father, only to have to watch him die at the hands of the slave catchers.

Boo & Moses

There’s also Ben the young son of the slave catcher, T.R. (Master Macon’s son), and?Henry, the teen who fled with Noah, Rosalee and the others from the Macon Plantation.

The riveting stories of all the youths make this week’s ‘Cradle’ the most emotional episode yet.

Are you an ‘Underground’ fan yet?? Share your thoughts below…

What did you think of this week’s episode of Underground?