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.

Strange Fruit

By: Megan Tillman

There was a part in Frederick Douglass Narrative when he expressed that sometimes, slaves would be lynched for their wrong-doings. He even later wrote another book titled, "Why is The Negro Lynched". Long after slavery, the acts of lynching still existed. When racism came about, stemming from slavery, blacks were lynched in multiple situations, mostly for no reason at all, just because they were black.

Posted above is a song performed by Billie Holiday, titled Strange Fruit. The song is a metaphor for the acts of racism, in particular, lynching. She sings that "strange fruit hangs from the trees" and in actuality, the strange fruit are blacks. They are considered "strange" fruit because humans aren't normally what you see hanging from a tree; it would be considered very bizarre for humans to be swinging from a tree. With racism prevalent in the day and age of which she performed this song in, lynching was common, though. She goes in-depth with her description, even describing their eyes as "bulging" and their skin "rotting" from the sun. It is a clever metaphor and a very moving song, moving enough to stir great emotions and bring many to tears due to the harsh realities of things such as unnecessary racism and intolerable slavery.

The Abolitionists- William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and John B...

SLAVERY: The Abolitionists' Cause

Who is the Nigger? -James Baldwin (clip)

James Baldwin: the Price of the Ticket