Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad - Research Paper Example

?Introduction Slavery in the United s remains one of the legendry abrogations of the human rights in history of the world, the blacks were forcefully recruited from their native homes to the US to work as slaves for the whites. Slaves in this regard were see as second-class citizens who had no rights and freedom, for the period slavery was practiced in the US, it was characterized with abuse of human rights and all kind of repressive policies for the slaves. It was based on sheer discrimination and the white supremacy reigned. Most of the slaves lived in harsh conditions and were generally mistreated, the sense of mistreat and discrimination was the basis of the civil movement in the US organized by prominent personalities like Malcolm X, Martin Luther Junior and the others. These people came out strongly to agitate for the rights and freedom of the blacks in the US and that they are considered just like any other American. Harriet Tubman Apart from the prominent personalities in the struggle for the liberation of the black man for the yolk of oppression and slavery in the US, Harriet Tubman remains one of those who in their little space fought oppression to the black and doing all what was necessary to free the slaves and fight for their rights. Childhood and Life as a Slave It is documented that Tubman was born in the 1820 and died in 1913. Tubman was a female from Maryland and later became a runaway slave making her to compare with the biblical Moses for the relentless fight she staged to help her people flee the oppressive regime that was instituted for the blacks in the US (Abnett, 2007). Tubman was involved in a risky act of using her own tact to free fellow slaves to freedom for a period stretching to over 10 years. At the time her birth, she was named Araminta Ross, she later changed her name to Harriet Tubman by combining her mother’s name and that of her husband respectively. She was born in a family of 11 in Maryland where she was hired out as a slave in her tender age (Abnett, 2007). In her duties, she had to keep awake for the whole night to ensure that the baby did not cry. Occasionally, according to the literature, Harriet did fell asleep and failed to deliver in her job, in such circumstances, she was whipped by the master for failing in her duties (Lantier, 2010). It is this kind of torturous life style that Harriet developed the determination to gain her freedom and extend it to her fellow slaves in the US. Harriet also refused to cooperate with the authorities who wanted her to help punish other perceived offenders. For instance, she refused to cooperate with the authorities in punishing a fellow slave who was accused of encroaching into the store without the permission. This incidence made her sustain a permanent scar that she sustained throughout her life (Lantier, 2010). The culprit escaped punishment by fleeing and the weight hurled at him, he missed it and it fell on Harriet’s skull, it left a scar in her brain and became unconscious for several days and she later suffered from seizures in her entire life. When rumors went round that she was to be sold among other people, she had no option but to flee the site, they organized and left the camp on a night on foot through one of the white men who empathized with them. It is said that she relied on the North Star for direction and used it to reach Pennsylvania. She later moved to Philadelphia where she was privileged to find work and saved money for her plans (Martin, Hoover, and Anderson, 2005). After her brief period in Philadelphia, she opted to return to Maryland with one main mission, helping free those under slavery, in that regard she started helping her family members out of the situation in the first trip of rescue. In her second mission, she freed her brother together with other two slaves and in her third trip, she was to free her husband but found that he was married to another wife , this did not work against her plans and she freed them together with other slaves who were seeking freedom and too them to the North. Escape Routes to Freedom By returning to help slaves achieve their freedom, Harriet put at risk her own life since herself was a fugitive slave, she was also breaking the laws in the slavery states by developing a conduit through which the slaves could be freed. She took the slaves to states that were perceived free from slavery and those were in the Northern parts and in Canada. In the meantime, there were information about her activities and agents were placed allover to arrest her if she would be found in her way freeing the slaves. The act of runaway slave was a dangerous action to involve in since there were punitive measures on the captives. The runaway journey was made through Underground Railroad; this channel made it impossible for some slaves to persevere and instead wanted to revert to their captive zones (Martin, Hoover, and Anderson, 2005). Whenever some slaves manifested dissatisfaction with the journey and opted to return to the masters, Harriet would pull a gun and promise them that it is either moving forward or death. She was doing this based on the knowledge that leaving the runaway slaves go back would jeopardize her future plans of freeing more slaves-the authorities would know the plan and block all the porous areas through which the slaves were being freed. The Underground Railroad was used as a safe channel of making the slaves reach safer destinations (Mortensen and Moore, 2007). The routes remained coveted plans and Harriet is one of the people who used it to free the slaves who were under white supremacy in the southern states in the US Tubman's Participation in the Civil War and Later Years Tubman’s involvement in the rescue of the slaves gave her the opportunity to rehearse well for her later involvement in the civil movement. The Underground Railroad journey gave her the opportunity to understand the terrain and use some of the ex slaves to spy and report the moves of the confederate troops. In the movement, she doubled up in many duties that enable her to succeed in her plans, most important was the fact that she was a nurse and could treat patients with minor ailment. One of the incidences that succeeded because of the privileged information she got from the scouts she had implanted in the camps was the 1863 raid (Mortensen and Moore, 2007). She was able to raid South Carolina with a gunboat because she could use her spies to help her with the vital information. Tubman was very instrumental to the civil movement given her vast experience in the Underground Railroad where she got involved with many of the slaves that would later help her achieve objectives. In the raid, the gunboats managed to defeat the union army and they curved in when they realized that their desire for freedom would be achieve much easier if they conform to them. They brought their belongings and joined hands with the gunboats to escape for freedom. In that incidence, Tubman said that she had never seen a sight of that kind; during these fights, Tubman used the skill she acquired tin Maryland-like nursing to help the slaves during the fight. She did nursing during the war in efforts to heal those who were wounded in the confrontation; this shows how dedicated and passionate she was in seeing that the slaves got their rightful position in the society (Stein, 2010). Most of the people died of diseases that were preventable; cholera and dysentery had a significant negative impact on the slaves at the time. Tubman was much disturbed particularly because she was able to find a solution to the problems given her training in Maryland, she could only not find the herbs that were in Maryland and that could be used to give remedies. Since she could not find the rots and the herbs, she knew were important in the remedy process in the south, she one night set off and looked for any herb that could give equal remedy and came across geranium (crane’s bill) and water lilies (Stearns, 2006). She then boiled them and gave them to one of the patients who were almost dying and he recovered. She then realized that water lilies could work and used it for the subsequent treatments; this is how Tubman was passionate about the well-beings of the slaves in her lifetime in the civil movement. In conclusion, liberating the slaves was not a simple matter, many people took issues with the then existing authorities and extended by taking personal risk to liberate the people from bondage. Tubman is one of the people who took position a against authorities form the very initial times and maintained it throughout her life and left indelible impact of a person who served her people with legendry passion against all sorts of oppression. References Abnett, D. (2007). Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. New York: PowerKids Press. Lantier, P. (2010). Harriet Tubman: conductor on the Underground Railroad. New York: Crabtree Publishing Co. Martin, M., Dave H., and Bill A. (2005).Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press. Mortensen, L., and Frances M. (2007). Harriet Tubman: hero of the Underground Railroad. Minneapolis, Minn.: Picture Window Books, Print. Stearns, D. (2006). Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library, Print. Stein, R. (2010). Conrad. Harriet Tubman: "on my underground railroad I never ran my train off the track". Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Read More