The Freedom Warrior, Harriet Tubman

 

A beacon of resistance, resilience, and a love of freedom, Harriet Tubman proved to all of those who would follow her that there was truly a way out of the clutches of slavery. She knew personally the dark side of slavery and what it was like to be treated only as property. While she could do little about the inequities and the lack of human rights, she was able to make a difference when it came to freeing, not only herself but all of her enslaved brothers and sisters brave enough to follow her out of the shadow of slavery. 

Let's face it, what Harriet did was dangerous both to herself and to all those she shepherded. Following Harriet into a world where not all white people were bad, and not all black people were good, across an anti-freedom minefield which, for a slave was a journey that, if you were lucky enough to make it to freedom, would never occur to a newly freed person, to simply rest of a while then say, ok! Let's do that again! 

But that is exactly what Harriet Tubman would do, determined to free her people (the ones who would follow her) from slavery one person at a time if she had to. Willing to put her life on the line for the anti-slavery cause until there was no longer a need for the support she received from the other abolitionists also working on the Underground Railroad. When slavery was no more she no longer needed support from the Underground Railroad who helped Harreit finance the purchase of shoes that were worn off her feet, and those of her followers. 

After slavery was abolished in the U.S. Harriet Tubman along with other female abolitionists, like Susan B. Anthony would recommit their activism to Women's Suffrage, and work to improve the 15th Amendment that granted African American men (not women) the right to vote.