Harriet Tubman:American Joshua

American Moses?Mother of the Civil Rights movementI propose this amazing woman was more than a Moses. Not just a Moses of her people, but of all people. Like Muhammad Ali, she personifies what it means to be an American fighting for the rights we are given, and putting it all on the line.

1820?

1822?

Born and raised in Bucktown MDPart of the Brodess PlantationAlthough, she worked for various families.

11 children

Brodess Plantation

Amarinta Ross

House slave at 5

She would have been born into a cabin much like this oneWent by the name of Amarinta Ross

Of the horrors of slavery, the threat of separation of family was likely the worst. Families were sold off or separated.

“worse than dead”

“no peace or closure”

Her first memory was of being cradled outdoors in a hollow log and seeing leaves blow in the wind above her. Later, her father taught her to navigate by the stars. She spent a lot time with her father out doors. Despite the fact she couldn’t read, she was very comfortable outdoors.

The injury led to visions and

narcoleptic spells for the rest of her life

It was late fall, sometime between 1834 and 1836, when Tubman was nearly killed by a blow to her head from an iron weight, Tubman had been hired out as a field hand to a neighboring farmer, and one evening she was called to accompany the plantation cook to the local dry goods store to purchase items for the kitchen.

When they arrived at the store, Tubman attempted to block the path of the overseer who was in pursuit of a defiant slave boy.

The overseer picked up a weight from the store counter and threw it, intending to fell the fleeing young man, but it struck Tubman with such crushing force that it fractured her skull and drove fragments of her shawl into her head

About 1844, she wed John Tubman. He was a free black man, highly unusual at that time. She was 19.

The implication of a slave woman marrying a free man is that their children are slaves. By marrying Araminta Ross, John Tubman was consigning to slavery any children their union might produce.

This is not a picture of them. No pictures exist, but it was a slave wedding around the same time.

1849Amarinta Harriet

“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.”1849 was a turning pointWhen Edward Brodess her master died in March 1849, the security of Harriet and John's life together was threatened. Knowing she was about to be sold, Tubman fled to freedom without him with her brothers, without her husband. Her brothers eventually returned

She soon learned he was not interested in joining her in the North, and he married another woman in the community - a free woman named Caroline with whom he had four free children.

Broken hearted, Tubman, refusing to sacrifice her freedom by returning and fighting for her marriage, instead committed herself to liberating her family and friends.

And she went to Philadelphia

Fugitive Slave Act of 1950

Part of the Compromise of 1850, it drove a line through the country, free and slave.

Law-enforcement officials everywhere were required to arrest people suspected of being a runaway slave on as little as a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership.

To best fulfill her destiny, Tubman realized she must actively seek a role in God's plan, rather than letting others dictate her path." This inspired Tubman to do more. She had to go back and help others. In 1851, she came back again and again.

Complex network. Tubman was critical in this thread.We’re talking about hundreds of slaves. UGRR wasn’t started by Tubman. It went back all the way to 1780s.

This road is the American journey. South to north. Slave to Freedom. The underground railroad is bi-directional and it continues today.

It is true grass roots movement dedicated to freedom, aligned to the true visions of freedom. An amazing network of secret hideouts.

Secret roomsCellars, secret doors of the Undergound Railroad

This was the common route for Harriet Tubman. Starting in Maryland, then to Wilmington, Philadelphia then upstate New York. She learned the tricks. Taking slaves on Saturday. She knew the connections along the way. She would head south sometimes to throw off slave hunters

From 1850 to 1860, Tubman would return to Maryland to rescue scores of family and friends.

She left her husband and her family. But she made a daring return to her home plantation to bring back her husband and her niece. Her husband wouldn’t return. He had already remarried.

Thomas Garrett was a prominent abolitionist: “he never met with any person, of any color, who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul . . . and her faith in a Supreme Power truly was great.”

Working this network required amazing creativity and network. Amazingly, she did this without being able to read or write.

Heralded as a military genius, freedom fighter and a strict disciplinarian, who suffered from epileptic seizures, Harriet Tubman could neither read nor write. She was also devoutly religious. Her faith was strong and unquestionable.

She also carried a gun with her. She was a fighter. Not a killer, but always willing to fight.

Jacob Lawrence is artist who painted a series on Harriet Tubman.

Tubman had ventured 30 times, helping over 300 slaves to safety at a time. In 1857, on one of her trips to Maryland, Tubman was able to bring both of her parents to freedom.

St. Catherine’s Canada. One her homes. An interesting story by itself. A strong African American community, Salem Chapel BME church

She had a seasonal pattern. Rescuing a large party in the fall, then back to Canada in the winter.

After a brief hibernation, she would head for northern haunts to spend tie earning money during the spring and summer

In Autumn: plan and execute additional raids in the south

Her Hymnbook. She would sing from it during her journeys.

She met and was inspired by John Brown. First met in 1858

They had a strong emotional and intellectual bond. Tubman had long viewed slavery as a sin, but under Brown’s influence, she came to perceive slavery as a state of war. She was ready to consider insurrections.

Brown dubbed her General Tubman.

John Brown.

He attempted a slave uprising at Harper’s Ferry. It was poorly planned and poorly executed.

Brown was captured and soon hanged, making him a martyr, but inspiring Tubman.

“He gave me my strength, and he set the North Star in the heavens; he meant I should be free.” – Harriet Tubman on John Brown

“From this time forward, she was not just Moses but had finally taken on the mantle of the warrior Joshua as well.”

While Nalle was being held in an upper floor of a Troy edifice, Harriet Tubman – who just happened to be visiting Troy – got wind of the situation and rushed to the scene. Disguising herself as an old woman, she managed to get to Nalle, and signaled him to exit through the window. A large crowd had gathered below, and a great melee ensued, the upshot being that Charles was brought down from the window and hustled across the river to Watervliet.

“She was repeatedly beaten over the head with policeman’s clubs, but she never for a moment released her hold . . . until they were literally worn out with their exertions and Nalle was separated from them.”

But that wasn’t the denouement. Charles was re-arrested in Watervliet. Then Tubman and a crowd of blacks and whites together also crossed the river and stormed the building where he was being held for the second time and, through gunfire, liberated him a second time

She helped in Beaufort as a nurseNotice the gun. She was a warrior.

Combahee River Raid

Tubman was recognized for her work with clandestine networks, recognized for her advanced intelligenceCombahee River Raid

Throughout the Civil War she provided badly needed nursing care to black soldiers and hundreds of newly liberated slaves who crowded Union camps.

In early June 1863, she became the first woman to command an armed military raid when she guided Colonel James Montgomery and his Second South Carolina Black regiment up the Combahee River, routing out Confederate outposts, destroying stockpiles of cotton, food and weapons, and liberating over seven hundred slaves. Helping free over 750 slaves with the help of black troops.

Tubman was an effective secret weapon. Her skills and familiarity with the land and able to move people were huge

She was active on the suffragist circuitShe conducted a 30 year battle to obtain her compensation for her military service, not just for her own gain but for a larger purpose.She assisted with the housing and hygiene of hundreds and thousands of veterans.

After the war, Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. There she began another career as a community activist, humanitarian, and suffragist. In addition to providing a home for numerous friends and relatives, she also worked to raise money for the Freedmen’s Bureau, which had been established to provide education and relief to millions of newly liberated slaves. Set up the Harriet Tubman home for the aged.

Moses of ‘Her’ People. I don’t like that. A better term is Moses of ‘the’ People, or the American People. But she was also a Joshua. A warrior. Not a killer, but a fighter.

Remarried in 1870, with her new husband. Charles Nelson DavisThis picture taken in 1885

“If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going”

“I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

Tubman’s story is one of action. She’s not a theorist. She’s out there putting it all on the line. She’s more than a Moses, but a Joshua. A warrior and a fighter.

She’s like Ali, Malcolm X, Those individuals who truly define what it means to be American.She pushed us. She wasn’t willing to wait. She was on the front lines. A warrior.Joshua was also a general. He led the 7 year battle for the promised land, and recognized as a leader and a model for leadership

Joshua 1: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”