Slavery

Who was Harriet Tubman? Why is she recognized as an actual hero, especially during the times of slavery in America? Harriet Tubman was a woman who suffered through slavery. She was a victim of physical abuse by her owners and suffered heartbreak from part of her family being taken and sold off. Harriet had enough, and so she ran from her owners, a journey many miles to only find the Underground Railroad.

She then became a conductor for the railroad and saved more than 300 people from slavery and helped them achive freedom. She is a perfect example of bravery and confidence in trying to do what is right. She was never afraid to venture out again to save everyone and refused to let others go back into their previous owners, instead, she made them continue even threatening them to go on with the journey so that they could be free. This is how she is a hero to me, and to anyone else.

Harriets birthdate is unknown, but she was born into an enslaved family. Already suffering as a young child, she was abused often and had part of her family taken and sold off. The abuse she went through had affected her mentally and physically. She had suffered from many scars from the harm that came to her, and there was one incident where she suffered a head injury that would cause problems in her brain and affect her for the rest of her life. Though later on, she would make her grand escape. Her bravery and confidence in herself would change her life for the better. She would then change her name to Harriet Tubman and become a conductor for the Underground Railroad.

After Harriet Tubman made her escape she found the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a network made for slaves to be taken to aid and worked all the way to freedom. African Americans and Whites both helped the slaves make their escape and become free. These people were called conductors, and that was what Harriet eventually became. The goal of being a conductor was to make sure all the slaves that were escaping were brought back safely and taken to aid to eventually work to be freed. Harriet was known to be one of the best conductors and one of the conductors that were never caught.

Her confidence boosted as she believed that these slaves could be set free. She made around 19 trips from the south to the north and rescued more than 300 people. She encouraged people and even threatened those who escaped if they dared to go back to their plantations. News brought out of this remarkable woman and many slaves were beginning to have hope. People started to see her as someone who can really accomplish a lot. They took note of this and began to draw out plans for their own escape. Unfortunately, things got even tougher when people discovered the fugitive slave act.

This law for slaves would make them start to lose the hope they once had. The law would mean that any fugitive slave that is already out of their owners land will be hunted down by slave hunters. These slave hunters would search endless to find any slave and return them to their owners, and it would be horrible since punishments would be placed upon these slaves and no one can stop them because it was normal. This act damaged the slaves hopes for escaping, and many stayed with the owners dealing with more pain each day. Harriet did not lose hope, and a few people would still do anything to get out. Those who encountered Harriet Tubman would be lucky as she would bring them to safety. As the people today reflect on this they think of how terrifying yet so brave of Harriet to continue to help out in the Underground Railroad.

Harriet had come very far since her time in the plantation. Her reputation as a successful conductor earned her the nickname “Moses.” It really shows how people looked at her, they saw her as someone who had faith in bringing everyone to safety. The story of Moses tells of when a man who used to be the Pharaoh’s son in which he left his home and came back to free the people that were enslaved by the new Pharoah, or his own brother.

As the Civil War was progressing Harriet had been serving in the war. She went along with traveling from north to south and took note of any enemy plans. Harriet’s contribution had helped out tremendously as it benefitted the union in making careful battle plans. At the very end though, she only settled someplace in New York. Though the amount of work she put into wasn’t nearly close to getting as much money. She later died of pneumonia at the age of 93. Her bravery, confidence, and journeys to save others will never be forgotten by the people.

In conclusion, Harriet Tubman is a great role model as she demonstrated the goodness of being confident in one’s self and having the courage to help others out. She inspired many people because of what she did and her contributions had helped a lot during the Civil War. The courage that it took to go out and make so many trips to the south to go and rescue many slaves. She had done everything to get others out of slavery, get aid, and eventually become free.

She is also the perfect figure for a hero. I look up to her since she was not afraid of doing what is right. I believe that what she did was amazing and it is inspiring of the journey that she went through. A true hero to me will go all out just to help others and to make sure they are safe. They have suffered too which makes them already want to help those not suffer the same way. The people today look at Harriet Tubman and think of a hero. She and several others like her are looked up upon when talking about things like these. She is a symbol of freedom and bravery, and even debates of her being recognized are rising.

These people are like me, they believe she has done something marvelous. She is a hero to me, she is a hero to everyone. Without her I don’t think these people who escaped would ever get freedom. The Underground Railroad was also the big piece during that time as the group was meant to help fugitive slaves and help them become free. Harriet had said “Every great dream begins with a deamer.” and it speaks to anyone who thinks they have a dream that can one day make a difference. Harriet Tubman really defines a hero, they want to help out and make a difference. It’s the type of hero I look up to, and Harriet Tubman is one of them.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” These were words spoken by none other than Harriet Tubman. When we hear this name we most likely think of the woman who freed slaves by participating in the underground railroad. Yet there is actually a lot about her that a lot of people don’t know.

Harriet Tubman was born a slave in 1822 as Araminta Ross and was put to work at the young age of five. She ran away at the age of 27 in 1849 after her master died, and even though it was a very dangerous and long way to Philadelphia, she made it to her destination without getting caught. Harriet Tubman did many things and helped a great number of people throughout her life. One of her achievements was hosting a nursery home for the elderly and sick.

In addition to this, after she escaped from slavery she decided to go back and help more people travel north to safety, putting herself at risk for the sake of others. Aside from these two important achievements, she also took part in helping during the civil war. After analyzing each role during the different times of her life, I believe that her work during the civil war was her greatest achievement.

To begin with, Harriet Tubman did many things within her life to help people other than herself. One of these was being the owner of a nursery home, which she ran in her own house, free of pay. She opened up her home to people faced with poverty, mostly elders, and sick people. She took in “The aged, … the babe deserted, the epileptic, the blind, the paralyzed, .. all found shelter and welcome.” (Document E) This demonstrates the variety of people that she opened herself up to in order to help them.

Harriet Tubman was a very kind and caring person who put others needs before herself. In a photo from the year 1885, she is shown with some of the people that she took care of with her second husband, including an older woman, three children, and two elderlies. (Document E) She opened up her home to many people for the last 48 years of her life which shows how she never changed and was always about being kind to others.

For Harriet Tubman, most of her life was spent lending a hand to strangers who were in need, no matter the risk involved. She spent her own money taking care of these people without asking for anything in return. This proves that she did it not for herself, but for the sake of the other people. With this being said, this portion of her life was spent doing the right thing, but it is still not her greatest achievement due to the lack of risk involved in taking care of these people compared with the other risks she has faced beforehand.

On the contrary, a greater achievement that Harriet Tubman took part in was conducting the underground railroad. Harriet Tubman ran away and escaped slavery in the year 1849, as previously mentioned. Unlike most people who ran away during these times, she decided to go back and get more people to safety. Doing this she put herself at risk, but fortunately, she was never caught. Her records are very unclear and incomplete, but it is without a doubt that she made at least eight trips with fugitives by her side. Starting in December of 1850 and ending in December of 1860, Harriet Tubman made eight trips that we know of.

In one of them during the fall of 1851, she was traveling with eleven others. (Document B) This was extremely dangerous because they could most likely be noticed at any time since it was a big group of people. Harriet Tubman was an empowering person because of her brave personality. It takes not only kindness to do what she did, but an immense amount of bravery and strength, as well as knowledge. She had many different escape routes to Canada which are shown in Document A. Her journeys to travel down these escape routes were hundreds of miles, they were made longer due to the fugitive slave act.

This act forced the Northern people to turn in escaped slaves if they were found. It made it extremely risky to travel up North in addition to the South. Risking her life, and putting all these dangers aside, Harriet Tubman rescued many slaves and got most of them, if not all of them, to safety. In spite of all of this, I do believe that there is an even greater achievement in her life, which was her time spent assisting people during the Civil War.

Although these achievements were astonishing, Harriet Tubman’s greatest achievement was her part in the civil war. Not only was she a nurse, but she helped lead a raid during the civil war, as well as spied for the North. Even though Harriet Tubman risked her life while she conducted the underground railroad, she put herself in even danger by leading a military expedition. “…Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free slaves from plantations along the Combahee River in South Carolina.” (Document X) She did this in order to help free more slaves, even if it meant putting herself at risk.

In 1818 a baby boy by the name of Frederick Augustus Washington, later changed last name to Douglass, was born to an African American woman named Harriet Bailey, who was a slave in Maryland. Frederick Douglass would soon become a well known author and abolitionist who shares the evils of slavery in which he endured. However, this would not come easy for most African American slaves could not read or write in english. Through one act of kindness, a spark would create the ingenuity of Frederick Douglass and his attempts to learn. Douglass would become creative in attempting to learn new things, and by doing so would leave him unsatisfied with his situation. This is the story of how Frederick Douglass changed his world.

When you look at how far he has come from being an enslaved man to a free man you can almost pinpoint it to a single moment when there was a shift in the balance. That moment came when Frederick was around the age of seven or eight when he was sent to Baltimore to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld. Instead of being in chains or working hard in the fields he lived in the home opening up a world of opportunities for him. Mrs. Auld was new to slave owning and had treated Frederick Douglass with kindness and hospitality. She would teach Frederick the A,B,C’s and would help him learn to spell words with just three or four letters. However when her husband found out he forced her to stop but it was too late.

He had the taste for learning and wanted more. As seen in Frederick Douglass book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave” he writes about his epiphany when he realized by learning to read he could become free. “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted and I got it at a time when I least expected it” (Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Blight, 64). Without his teacher he would have to get creative in ways to learn how to read. He would make friends with little white boys and would gain information from them. He would in a way exchange bread for knowledge (67). As he learned how to read and write he was also able to learn from reading documents. He would eventually learn that his world was not the same everywhere. That not every African American was enslaved and would change him forever.

As Frederick Douglass learned to read a lot changed in him. While he became a more intelligent slave it also was sort of like a mental prison. The information he gained from reading showed no way out of the hole he was in. “It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out”(68). Along with this he began to realize that ignorance was indeed bliss at times and he was jealous of his fellow slaves’ ignorance. However, despite this feeling, he also knew he had to do something about it. As he read more and learned more he found that he could indeed escape to the north but not until he learned how to write. During this time he would be sent from one master to another. Because of him learning to read and write, he was not as complying as other slaves and was smart in finding way to get enough food. “One of my greatest faults was that of letting his horse run away, and go down to this father-in-law’s farm, which was about five miles from St. Michael’s. I would then have to go after it. My reason for this kind of carelessness, or carefulness, was, that I could always get something to eat when I went there”(79).

Through reading he also got a sense to fight back. He didn’t want to be used as a brute by Mr. Covey no longer. By fighting back he realized that he could truly one day become free. He attempted to escape many times but failed until September 1838 when he would escape to New York. However, it not being safe for him to stay there and through the kindness of Mr. Ruggles, He would be able to use his knowledge as a Calker to go to New Bedford (113). By learning to read and write he was able to use that to write speeches and be an advocate for the enslaved. He was able to become a free man by learning how to read. By reading documents and becoming aware of his plight, it almost set the chains to be broken. He wanted to learn how to read and write because as soon as Mrs. Sophie Auld taught him the ABC’s he wanted to know more. It was this curious mind of his that led to his life being changed.

Chiefly, one could often learn from Frederick Douglass and apply it to everyday life and situations. Frederick learned how to read and write on his own, used his intelligence to trick kids into teaching him more things( or supplying them with food) and eventually escape the evilness of Slavery. By seeing how he persevered through those hardships it shows that we have to be brave and stand up against what is wrong. We have to fight to get out of any bad situation. And furthermore, literacy is power…education is power.

A relationship is like a necklace; it doesnt serve its function if you dont connect the first 2 from each end. But then again it will not serve its function if 1 link in the middle is weak and breaks. Remember the Titans shows a setting where exactly that happens, the white players do not want a part of the black players on their team and vice-versa. It was going to stay like that until a decision on the school board was made that there would be a change of the head coach. The new coach was not a racist thus giving everyone the same treatment, no matter black or white.

Do you have to be acting, behaving, look like, etc. the way others want you to be? If you were with the girl/guy that you dreamed of your whole life, would you care if the rest of the world thought that there is something wrong with that person? Remember the Titans, is a move about lifes lessons that had a harsh effect in the past and left an ignorant scar on all. The movie shows how the times of slavery and discrimination of race left a scar on people in this new era.

The movie was produced to teach people that all could only get better with change and if all are given the same and equal rights. Display of how one football team first refuses to be integrated with black players, even if that could bring some new talent to the team.

In 1606, a London-based joint-stock company known as the Virginia Company obtained a royal charter from King James I to establish an English colony in the New World. On May 24, 1607, a hundred English settlers landed up the James River and established the colony of Jamestown; both named after King James. The Jamestown settlement was only expected to last for a few years before its investors would liquidate the company for a huge profit. Instead they sparked the beginning of a whole era of English colonization. The Jamestown settlement became the first of many settlements that would appear all along the east coast of North America. Although Jamestown gradually thrived through the production of tobacco, the early settlers faced famine and cultural warfare that almost wiped out the entire settlement. In addition to this, the early Jamestown settlers encountered many other obstacles in the New World, which included death by famine and disease, Native American clashes, and the lack of leadership, and their efforts to overcome these obstacles had changed the colony economically and socially throughout the ensuing century. When the settlers first disembarked up the James River, they chose to settle on a swamp infested with malaria-carrying mosquitos and this contributed to the diseases which the settlers were susceptible to and therefore contracted. They also lacked the supplies and the food to sustain themselves through the harsh winters, especially through the winter of 1609-1610 which was known as the “starving time”. Eventually, many settlers died from starvation, as well as rampant diseases. According to Document A, George Percy states that the greatest cause of death in the Jamestown settlement was starvation n addition to famine and disease, the settlers encountered resentful and ruthless Native Americans whom the former had pushed out from their native lands. The Powhatans had initially come to peace with the settlers thanks to John Smith’s efforts of truce; they provided for the settlers vegetables, fruits, and other foodstuffs. Eventually the colonists became less reliant on ind more aggressive towards the Powhatans. The Powhatans eventually attacked and sieged amestown killing many livestock and colonists.

The colonists also lacked the leadership to keep them united throughout the first years of the settlement. The colonists had initially been entirely focused on finding gold that they did not look for raw resources and foodstuffs which could have helped them avoid famine. Eventually the settlement is saved when in 1608, John Smith takes charge of Jamestown. He instituted the rule that if a colonist does not work, then he will not be allowed to eat. Smith helped whip the colonists into shape at a time when they needed they needed it the most. Through Smith’s leadership, Jamestown continued to persist. One of the greatest efforts of these Virginians to overcome the obstacles that they faced was when John Rolf introduced tobacco in Jamestown. Tobacco grew to become a demand in England and many of the Virginians took this opportunity to cultivate their own tobacco for export. According to Document B., tobacco laid the foundations of the colony’s entire economy. The bitter plant sprouted in every garden in Jamestown, and within a few years it soon evolved into miles of plantations all across Virginia. Along with acres of land, the cultivation of this cash crop also demanded a large labor force to harvest the plant. This necessity led to the practice of indentured servitude. Indentured servitude was a contract between a poor individual and a plantation owner.

According to Document C., the indentured servant agrees to work for a plantation owner in exchange for the former’s passage to the New World. Along with indentured servants, slaves were also purchased by wealthy colonists to work on their plantations. The introduction of slaves in Virginia and its developing reliance on slave labor sparks the beginning of the slave trade in North America. In reference to Document E., ships of Africans sail to Virginia to appease the colonists’ need for slaves. The introduction of indentured servitude and slavery in Virginia had social implications as well as an economic role. The existence of indentured servitude created a huge social gap between wealthy plantation owners and poor servants. The colonists who were small farmers placed in between the two on the social hierarchy of Virginia. But the slaves placed below the indentured servants creating an even larger gap between the rich and the poor. This social hierarchy continued to dominate Virginia even a century after the end of the colonial period Overall, Virginia grew to become a powerful colony because the Jamestown settlers continued to endure despite the death that resulted from disease, famine, and the vindictive Indians. These challenges faced by the early Jamestown settlers had such a significant influence over the economic and social identity of colonial Virginia.

Columbus Day is one of the only holidays named after a person, Christopher Columbus. Someone who has a holiday named after them should have made some very important contributions to history and have shown noble or admirable qualities as a person. Christopher Columbus however, does not show many admirable qualities. In fact, from what we know, he was a cruel, selfish person who killed a lot of people. We should not be celebrating the genocide of Native people and teaching children in elementary school that Columbus is a good role model. He may have been brave for sailing out to find new places, but he was extremely greedy and killed, captured, and tortured people to gain money and power. Columbus killed natives, stole gold, and never even landed on America. He was neither honorable, nor exemplary; he was a mass murderer, so we should not honor him with a holiday.

The phrase that most people use as justification for Columbus Day is that “He discovered America.” This is only barely true, for a number of reasons. He did introduce Europe to the New World but he was not even the first person to land in the Americas, like the myths would have you believe (Article 3). Columbus never landed on mainland America (Article 3). He wandered around islands in the Caribbean, stealing valuables, thinking he was in Asia. He did open up the islands for trade with Europe and bring in a lot of money for Spain (and himself), but he was not responsible for colonizing the mainland. The Vikings were actually the first non natives to “discover” America. By the eleventh century Vikings, who were early Scandinavians, had not only visited but already had established settlements in North America (Article 2).

Not only was Columbus not the discoverer of America, he was also a malicious, egotistical person. He was not good, or honest, or particularly creative or smart, and he does not deserve a holiday. When Columbus and his men landed on the islands that would become the West Indies, instead of being peaceful and trading with the indigenous people, they lied, exploited and killed hundreds of them. Natives were murdered for refusing to convert to Catholicism. Worse, they were often tortured or killed for amusement or over petty arguments over goods. Natives were killed in games for the sailors’ amusement, and women were raped.

Columbus captured natives and started a slave trade, even though they had been peaceful and kind to him. Warren H. Carroll describes the natives (the Taino people) as “a gentle, happy, attractive people living peacefully in good ecological balance with their surroundings” in Article The explorers took advantage of these good people, and we celebrate that as a national holiday. The disease that Columbus and his men brought to the New World were responsible for wiping out most of the population. The “Indians” had no immunity to the European diseases and they were easily communicable. It says in Article 2, “Within four years of Columbus’s arrival on Hipiola, his men had killed or exported one-third of the original Indian population of 300,000.” Columbus sparked the start of trade and European expansion and colonization in America, but he also wiped out one third of the Taino people by forcing them into slavery or murdering them.

Many people say that Columbus was a brave, determined man, and that he was honorable for exploring an area that no one had gone to before. In actuality, he was not motivated by some noble reason, such as scientifically proving that the Earth was round, (Articles 2 & 3) but he and his sponsors, were motivated by greed and self-interest. Columbus stole gold and valuables from native people, often killing to get them, and brought them back to Spain. He took land for himself and created plantations and mines, where he forced natives to work for him as slaves, building his personal wealth (Article 2). He was responsible for initiating the slave trade, and  transporting hundreds of natives across the ocean to Spain on ships with inhumane conditions to be sold as slaves (Article 2).

Columbus Day honors a cruel, greedy man who killed hundreds of innocent people. He may have been brave (Article 5), but that does not change the fact that he practically wiped out a whole culture and started a slave trade between Spain and the Americas (Article 2). We should be honoring culture that was lost all and the native people that died the instead of the man who killed them. Some people say that Columbus Day is the “beginning of cultural exchange between America and Europe” (Article 4) but Columbus wasn’t the only explorer to land in the New World. In fact, he never even landed on the mainland. We could celebrate “European American Cultural Exchange Day”, not Columbus Day. Columbus is often used as an American role model but a man who committed genocide is not a very good default role model. We should not celebrate Columbus Day because Columbus was selfish, treated natives very poorly, and he never even landed on America.

Long before August 18, 1820, women were denied the right to vote for 144 years. Women were second class citizens in a hypocritical patriarchal society. Despite this plight, Susan B. Anthony proved to be an influential figure: she laudably pursued the women’s rights, and her anti-slavery initiatives aided the abolition of slavery.

Susan Brownell Anthony was born in February 15, 1820 in Massachusetts. Anthony was one of eight children in a Quaker household. To her religion and schooling she owed much. Her Quaker background and education enabled her to develop a strong moral compass. Anthony’s ploy for women’s rights started in her early life. In the late 1830s, when Anthony was in her teens, her father’s business failed, and she was pulled out of school due to his financial woes.

She left her family soon after to make a living but continued to support them with her meager teaching salary. Despite growing up in an uber religious household, Anthony would later deliberate that the church was the reason for women’s oppression. One of her first triumphs would be the fact that she was instrumental in the victory of the abolitionists. At her parent’s new home in Rochester, New York, she hosted famous abolitionistssuch as Frederick Douglas. These meetings would not serve as the conclusion of her dedication however.

In 1851, Anthony attended an anti-slavery conference were famous orators such as William Lloyd Garrison and George Thompson made reaffirmed the evils of slavery and the fact that it should be abolished. Anthony would later launch an anti-slavery campaign of her own after being heavily influenced by Garrison’s words (quote from a Frederick Douglas book)- “No compromise with slavery! No union with slaveholders!”

Anthony’s defining moment would come when Susan B. Anthony along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, her new found friend at the anti-slavery convention, established the Women’s Loyal National League in 1863. Together, they started drive to collect signatures to abolish slavery, and they were able to collect nearly 400,000 signatures. This significantly aided the passage of the 13th amendment- the government probably noticed that this no longer was a black man’s problem, but the whole nation was convinced that slavery was unnecessary and unmoral. Anthony’s success is the abolitionist world definitely improved the status of blacks in society.

Additionally, many women owe the leadership roles they now enjoy to the works of Susan B. Anthony. Anthony has a long track record when it came to pursuing women’s rights. Some of her notable institutions was the American Equal Rights Association which purpose was to secure equal rights for all persons, the National Women’s Suffrage Association, and so on. Anthony would literally stop at nothing to eradicate the barriers society put before women. She even took a brave gamble by illegally voting in the 1872 election. Anthony was arrested, and indicted, but even after she served her term she continued to give her lectures. She showed Strong resolve, and a year before her death, she unsuccessfully talked to the president about lobbying for woman’s suffrage.

Fourteen years after her death in 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, and she was forever remembered as the one who lead the charge for women’s suffrage. Thanks to her strong resolve to enfranchise women and provide them with basic rights, women today can occupy leadership positions, such as CEO roles, and exercise the most basic right- the right to vote.

Susan B. Anthony’s conviction and perseverance has bestowed upon today’s generation of women invaluable social mobility. Her knack for campaign for women and Black American causes cannot be overlooked. Such efforts have been the foundation of the leadership positions these two groups thoroughly enjoy at present.