Harriet Tubman was an african american slave that was born around 1820 in Maryland. At an early age, tried to escape, in vain though. After having been working hard and having been beatten by her masters for years, she decided to escape for good and take the underground railroad in order to go north and gain freedom. She knew some white people that were part of the underground rail road and that would help her escape. As soon as she got to the North and was free, she felt like she had to go back to get her family. She didn’t stop with just her family and went back in the South a great number of times. Eventhough there was a huge reward for her capture, she kept going back and forth from south to North. Harriet Tubman is said to have been helping about 300 hundreds slaves to escape. She is at this day the most well known conductor of the underground railroad. As soon as the Civil war began she was asked to help the union army and became a scout and a spy. During the war, she led an armed expedition that freeded 700 slaves. Later in life she commited herself in the struggle for women's suffrage movement.
We could relate this figure to Frederic Douglass, both of them having escaped slavery thanks to the help of the people of the underground railroad. Tubman is the only one to explain in depth how the underground railroad was organized, Douglass mentionning it very briefly.
I see Harriet Tubman as a really courageous woman. Not only did she proceeded to her escape alone, leaving her brothers behind her, but she also did not fear to come back many times to her enslavement land to help other slaves. When I try to picture myself as being at her place, I wonder how much courage and strength you must have to help slaves to escape, when yourself you are still a slave. What she was risking by going back was to lose the freedom that she fought for, and go back to where she was since her birth, with the whipping and inhumanness that go with it. She refused her condition as a slave since her early childhood by fighting back, and attempting escapes. She was also a spy during the Civil War, which requires tremendous courage. Harriet Tubman was putting her life in danger constantly.
ReplyDeleteI am also impressed by her faith her strength. As a teenager, she was given hard work on the field and in the woods. But more than physical, her strength was mental. Even though she was coming back to free her family, she took other slaves with her, taking even more risks. I admire Harriet Tubman as a leader of the anti-slavery movement.
By: Jake Robinson
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed looking at this picture of Harriet Tubman. I never knew very much about Harriet Tubman, but by looking at this picture, I feel like I now know everything I need to know about her. Harriet Tubman can be compared to Moses in the Old Testament, because she is freeing her brothers and sisters from slavery. As depicting in this picture, Harriet Tubman is physically delivering a family of African American slaves into the hands of freedom. I think the concept of the Underground Railroad is a very interesting concept. In this picture, we can see that Tubman leads this family through nature, undetected. In the Underground Railroad, there were secret locations where African Americans could stay and remain unharmed. As I looked more at this picture, I was somewhat surprised to see a rifle in the hands of Harriet Tubman, because I suppose I always assumed that she freed slaves in a non-violent manner. My assumption was proven wrong, but it can be argued that violence is sometimes necessary, especially when it comes to bring slaves to freedom. All in all, this picture really said a lot to me. This picture showed me how some slaves escaped to their freedom, and that Harriet Tubman is one heck of a strong woman, who’s determination runs for miles on end.