Sista Moses....Harriet Tubman [c.1820-1913]


HARRIET TUBMAN helped change American opinion on slavery and racism in the United States. She also personally engineered the freeing of hundreds of blacks from slavery in the Deep South.

For a time during the nineteenth century, Tubman was one of the most wanted women in the nation: Slave masters and law enforcement officials in the South knew that the former slave was orchestrating the escape of other blacks, and they wanted her stopped. But Harriet-who earned the nickname “Moses , the Deliverer”-made at least eighteen trips from the South to the North over several years, securing new lives of freedom for hundreds of blacks. Traveling by night and in often treacherous conditions, Harriet used a network known as the Underground Railroad. It stretched from the farthest reaches of the slaveholding states, many miles away to the “free” northern states. In her time, it would have been remarkable for any one to surreptitiously transport so many enslaved individuals successfully even once. But Harriet, imbued with a strong physical constitution and a notoriously tough will, did it time and time again.

‘There was one of two things I had a right to-liberty or death,’ Harriet once said. ‘If I could not have one, I could have the other, for no man should take me alive.’ Her life was a roller coaster ride of danger and achievement, of incredible hardship and a strong-willed righteousness that made her fearless in the face of death. Yet after a long life that included friendships with former slaves like SOJOURNER TRUTH and Frederick Douglass and white abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet died alone in 1913.

In the years after her death, scholars and other American leaders took serious note of her extraordinary contribution to this nation. In 1914 a bronze plaque commiserating her life was placed on the wall of the Cayuga County Courthouse in upstate New York... By remaining true to HER BELIEFS, by TRUSTING GOD, by OUTSMARTING numerous white segregationists to free hundreds of slaves, Harriet Tubman is a striking example of black women’s role in improving America.

Born a slave in Dorechester County, Maryland, in 1819 or 1820, one of eleven children, Harriet’s real name was Araminta Ross.. .By the age of five, she was doing housework and other domestic chores in the big house of the plantation...Harriet was a hard worker and an independent minded young girl. Her father adored her and often took her with him to hunt in the surrounding woods, In her earliest years Harriet grew familiar with the ways of fishing, trapping and outdoor life, valuable skills that would sustain her in later years.

Deeply religious and possessed of a strong personality, Harriet learned to despise the ways of slavery. Physically slight, she nevertheless had a strong wiry body which made her a dependable worker to her white owner. Many slaves, even strong ones, died young for a number of reasons: work-related injuries, fatal beatings, illness, poor diet. Harriet came close to death twice in her young life. When she was thirteen years old, a white plantation foreman slammed a heavy iron weight against her skull. Harriet had refused to follow the man’s orders... Remarkably she survived the blow but forever after suffered severe headaches and occasional blackouts. Another occasion... contracted measles and bronchitis....her voice deepened into a husky low register [as a result of the illness] ... [it] distinguished her for the rest of her life... Harriet’s early brushes with death helped to mold her into a strong no-quit individual.

In 1849, Harriet was sold to a far-off plantation. While traveling at night to her unknown destination with the slave trader who had purchased her, she slipped into the dense woods and disappeared... It was a bold, impulsive move but Harriet decided she no longer face the cruel uncertainty of being sold and resold again and again.

The next few weeks filled Harriet with terrible fear as she traveled alone through the backwoods and small villages. At first, she couldn't be sure whom to trust, but she did remember the words of the slaves whom she had heard speak about an ‘underground railroad...’ After several weeks of living by her outdoor skills... she reached Philadelphia. She had traveled more than hundred miles from Maryland to Pennsylvania, mostly on foot and mostly by herself. It was a remarkable pilgrimage. Once ...settled in Philadelphia, she worked as a cook...and became preoccupied with learning more about the ...underground railroad. She eventually met a white antislavery activist named William Still,...known as the Philadelphia ‘Stationmaster of the Underground Railroad'...[they] quickly became friends.

Over the next few years, Harriet made several...trips into Maryland, freeing her brother and many others. Like SOJOURNER TRUTH, Harriet believed that God had planned for her a special mission in life. And by following his lead-which she likened to the North Star, which guided her on her clandestine travels-Harriet felt she would find the right path. For the next decade Harriet continued her secret work. She became well known to abolitionist in upstate New York and Canada. She was also notorious among white slaveholders, who posted a $40,000 reward for her capture. It is estimated that by 1858 she led more than three hundred slaves to freedom. Her nickname-'Moses'-was whispered and revered in slave quarters from Maryland to New Orleans....While encouraging and friendly with those she led to freedom, Harriet also demanded strict obedience from them. Almost always, she carried a pistol to make sure that none of them would retreat. She vowed to shoot any runaway slave who caved in and tried to return to the plantation, saying ‘If he is weak enough to give out, he’d be weak enough to betrayed us all and all those who helped us. And do you think I’d let so many die just for one coward man?...’

After the Civil War broke out, Harriet decided to help the Northern cause. She traveled to forts and encampments in the North, nursing the sick and caring for soldiers and slaves who had been wounded or captured in the fighting...known for her herbal remedies and voluminous knowledge of the outdoors. By war’s end, Harriet had worked as a nurse, a spy, a cook and a scout for the Union army-...she had even led a battalion of blacks-the Second Carolina Volunteers for a brief period during the war... She married a man ten years young than she, Newlson Davis and returned to Auburn.

When she died on March 10, 1913, she was at least ninety-three years old. Her friends Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass and William Still had passed on long before her. But Harriet was not forgotten by the nation. She had a military funeral and buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn."

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Excerpts from “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America"

Alexander, Amy “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America” New Jersey: Birch Lane Press, 1999:18

Harriet Tubman is one of my FAVORITES, I relate to her on so many different levels. She's the perfect example of a tireless "foot soldier."

Thank you for sharing this.

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My pleasure. Sista FaB! I went into your wrong editing "mold" instead of mines.. This is my second reply in my blog so....I'm new at this part. Sorry.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kocolicious,

quote:

My pleasure. Sista FaB! I went into your wrong editing "mold" instead of mines.. This is my second reply in my blog so....I'm new at this part. Sorry.

No problem. I'm guilty of doing the same thing in my blog - ALL THE TIME!!!! LOL.

It does take some getting 'used' to, but you'll get it.

Love Harriet Tubman and when i read about her from some other resources they listed her as an African and not American behind it .

Really? Wow! I never knew that.

quote:

Originally posted by Akeyza27:
Love Harriet Tubman and when i read about her from some other resources they listed her as an African and not American behind it .

I would like to add that you should not get upset about
that if truth be told all black people in america did
not come here as slaves, the majority of us were already here before the european ever came.

I refer you to the following books:
They came before columbus BY IVAN VAN CERTIMA
100 amazing facts about the negro by J.A. ROGERS
AND MORE.

If we were here first then whose land is it, then
why should we want to become excepted by somone
who came later who had no history.

We ruled egypt threw 25 dynesties of black kings and
queens before there was any such thing as europe
rome and grease were not european creations
they were mediterranean inspired nations.

at the time of the invasion of alexander the great
we had ruled all of the known uncivilized world
and up until that time there was no such place
as europe.

The word europe was not even being used, it only came
about when a white german kidnaped a black princess
from morroco named EURORA.

The morrocan moors invaded that land and had babies
educated them to moorish science and ruled spain
for 700 years, they named thier country after a black
princess you can find some places in europe today
still called EUROPA INCLUDING AN AIR LINE
JUST TYPE THE NAME INTO YOUR INTERNET

IN CONCLUSION:
THIS ROCK WE ARE STANDING ON CALLED AMERICA BELONG TO US THE DECENDANTS OF AFRICANS WHO WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE
ON EARTH.
SO CALM DOWN PRINCESS EVERTHING WHITE AMERICA GOT
THEY STOLE FROM US THEY HAVENT DISCOVERED ANYTHING
99% of all inventions in america came from us
it is impossible for any woman on earth to do what
HARRIET TUBMAN DID BESIDES ANOTHER BLACK WOMAN.

NOBODY ON EARTH CAN DO WHAT OUR BLACK LEADERS IN HISTORY HAVE DONE BESIDES BLACK PEOPLE.
when i am asked what my nationality is I tell them
I'm a moor by birth thats my legal and political status
because my forfathers were never slaves,

we were already here on our own land ask your mother
and father about the history of your family.