Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the “Moses of her people”. Over the course of ten years, and at a great personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. She later became a leader in the abolitionist movement, and during the Civil War she served as a spy for the federal forces in South Carolina as well as a nurse. After the war, Harriet Tubman returned to her home in Auburn, New York where she played an active role in Women’s Suffrage.
Harriet Tubman’s life is a monument to courage and determination that continues to stand out in American history. By creating her own destiny, not letting her goal die, and giving a hand to those in need Harriet Tubman has greatly influenced my life. A more ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found among the most unfortunate-looking farm hands of the South.
Being one of those farm hands meant the one was held in bondage as the property of another, a slave. This was the condition in which Harriet Tubman was born into as Araminta Ross in 1820 in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She was raised under harsh conditions, subjected to whippings even as a small child. Unlike the narrator of The Road Not Taken she had no right or claim in the choices concerning her life.
However, Harriet Tubman would not settle for the life as a slave and during one night in 1849 she ran away from her master’s plantation in Maryland for the fear that she was to be sold. On her voyage to freedom she was introduced to the Underground Railroad and after many ordeals she reached Philadelphia. “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now that I was free. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven” –Harriet Tubman. Even though the path she was put on was not the one she would have chosen, and no matter which directions she was pushed or pulled in, she reacted to her environment to make it positive at the end.
Due to her determination to change her environment, Harriet Tubman never let her goals die. To allow her personal aspirations to fall victim to life’s hardships was a solution that many slaves accepted, but for Harriet Tubman that would have been a costly sacrifice. “I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me” –Harriet Tubman. Through such perseverance, drive, and passion she rose above difficulties, and her long term goal to be free served as a light at the end of a seemingly never-ending tunnel.
After freeing herself from slavery, Harriet Tubman felt obliged to help others see their light at the end of their tunnel. “I had crossed the line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom, I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with the old folks, and my brothers and sisters. But to this solemn resolution I came; I was free, and they should be free also; I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all there” –Harriet Tubman.
So in following years, until the Civil War, she used all her money and resources to return to the south in secret. There were about nineteen trips like this, in which she brought more than three hundred slaves out of bondage. Then again, in the summer of 1863, during the war, she led a major raid into enemy territory resulting in the freeing of more slaves and the destruction of supplies that could aid the enemy. She also served at a number of hospitals were she nursed and healed both blacks and whites. After the war, Harriet Tubman was an advocate for women’s suffrage; and until her death in 1913 she worked for the poor, the disadvantaged, and the elderly among African Americans. Harriet Tubman was one who was dedicated to helping others know the satisfaction of obtaining their goals. No matter what her situation, if there was a knock on her door, she would answer it as she was able.
During the course of her life Harriet Tubman has suffered for what she believed. She took the road least traveled by many slaves which had made all the difference in her lifei. She did not let anything stand in her way to freedom. She would either have it or nothing at all. She then returned back after she attained her freedom to aid others gain theirs. Through this risky feat Harriet Tubman affected the lives of hundreds, in which I include mine.
From her life experiences I have learned that even though my path to receive a college education will not always be clear, I have to keep my eyes open and focused on the road ahead. That I should not settle for second best; that if I don’t take a firm stand in what I believe in, I am bound to fall for anything. However, the most important lesson I acquired from her was to turn back and help others when I finally reach my goals. To open the doors for those in need to pass through and see the light.
