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Analysis of the historical contributions of harriet tubman
An essay on how Harriet Tubman impacted the world
Analysis of the historical contributions of harriet tubman
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Have you ever faced a giant fear blocking your path in life? People use courage every day to overcome their biggest fears which result in gaining courage. Eleanor Roosevelt describes exactly that by saying, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face” (Eleanor Roosevelt). This quote was used by
Kelley Kalafatich in her TEDTalk “Living with Courage: Embracing Fear to Follow Your Heart”, in which she tells listeners her own experiences of overcoming a fear and becoming a more courageous person. So, people gain courage the most by going through experiences which they truly fear, and when they overcome that moment they become much stronger. The words presented by Eleanor Roosevelt
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During the time of slavery, anyone who helped a slave and the slave attempting to escape was considered a criminal and suffered severe consequences. But Harriet Tubman achieved both. Harriet Tubman was a slave but was able to escape into freedom through her courage after years of being beaten and abused. After she escaped, she made it her duty to help other slaves escape into the free world. Tubman knew the severe punishments she would face if caught, but she conquered this fear and continued bringing her travelers to safety. She made many journeys to get slaves their freedom and is known for never leaving a traveler behind. In the end, she was able to rescue about 70 slaves which was an extremely difficult task. The slaves and Tubman had to travel completely under the radar in fear of being caught. She made sure everything was secret and used the safest route at the time, the Underground Railroad, to get the slaves to safety. Not only did Tubman guide tens of slaves to freedom, but she served as a cook and nurse for the Union Army. To add on, she also served as an armed spy, which was extremely dangerous. Harriet Tubman was extremely courageous and certainly did not let fear stop her in her mission and professions. Throughout Harriet Tubman’s whole life, she constantly showed extraordinary
Many slaves found an escape system that led them to freedom. Although the Fugitive Slave Act was passed which meant that it was harder for former slaves to live in the United States (Crewe 8). This confidential system was called the Underground Railroad and the system circulated rapidly from plantation to plantation and from one slave to another (Ray 45). The Underground Railroad was a system which assisted fugitives to flee to the north, ran by genuine townspeople (Ray 46). The helpers on the Railroad provided nourishment, clothing and protection from the slave catchers (Ray 46). They illegally transported fugitives in wagons through threatening regions and led them along the independence path. The most brave among them was Harriet Tubman who fled to independence in 1849 (Ray 46). Tubman would voyage the north by night and would hide every time she heard sounds of horses (Ray 46). She assisted for ten years and helped free slaves (Ray 46). Time after time, she would go back to the South to guide more than three hundred blacks on a unpredictable get away path (Ray 46). Harriet never gave up because at one point, slave hunters proposed twelve thousand dollars for the catch of the heroic "Railroad conductor" (Ray 46). Of course, that didn't stop her. This led to Harriet carrying a gun to prevent scared slaves from going back (Ray 46). At once, Tubman got asked if she would really shoot a fugitive who endangered the other
“ 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.”~Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman sacrificed her life and freedom as well. She organized the Underground Railroad, and freed hundreds of slaves. As if the journey wasn’t difficult enough,stated by the book, Who Was Harriet Tubman, “But the trip was even more dangerous after 1850. That was because the Fugitive Slave Law had been passed.”(pg.56) The Fugitive Slave Law meant that runaway slaves who made it to the free states had to be sent back to their masters. People were allowed to beat the slaves and sell them back into the South too. Even though the situation was tough, Harriet Tubman never gave up on what she thought was
“I freed thousands of slaves, and could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.” (History.com) This Harriet Tubman quote is a great representation of the kind of person she was. Harriet Tubman was a great woman, not only did she escape slavery; she went back several times to save more people. She conducted the Underground Railroad and did great things that have changed our history in one of its darkest times in our history. Being a slave was not easy but that didn’t stop her.
In the year 1825 in Maryland a true hero was born. This hero did the impossible. This hero dared to do what no one else would do. This hero devoted her life to making America better. This hero overcame something that no one at the time thought would ever be overcame. This hero is Harriet Tubman. No one since Harriet has devoted their whole life to one thing and overcoming it and making a huge difference, which was slavery. From being a toddler to the day of her death she devoted all of it to making a difference in slavery, and she sure did make quite a difference. From being a slave herself to freeing over one thousand slaves Harriet Tubman is a true hero. Imagining America without having Harriet Tubman in it is a hard thing to do. Harriet changed America into a better place and was one of the main reasons that slavery came to an end. Harriet Tubman overcame slavery by escaping persecution, risking her life, and refusing to give up.
The first contribution of Harriet Tubman is that she served as a spy for the union army, because she wanted freedom for all the people who were forced into slavery not just the people she could help by herself. One day Tubman took one of the most dangerous and dramatic roles she helped Colonel James Montgomery plan to free slaves from a plantation along the Combahee River in South Carolina. They helped seven hundred and fifty Negroes into the free lines. The river is now known as the “Jordan River” it is the symbol of bondage and freedom. It is also a sign of significance of the military in America...
Harriet Tubman was a selfless woman, who devoted her life to save others. Many other slaves from the South escaped to freedom in the North like Tubman. Many of these people stayed where they were free, frightened to go anywhere near the South again. However, that was not Tubman, she was different. She wanted everyone to have the feeling of freedom that she had newly discovered. Harriet was known “to bring people of her race from bondage to liberty,” (S Bradford et al 1869). Harriet Tubman was known as a hero to lots of people during the Civil War.
Bravery isn't having no fear; it is accepting and welcoming your fears and getting past
...ark. It is her life that should be remembered, the women that had the courage to escape from a life she did not want and the selflessness to return to bequeath the same gift on others that were not as fortunate as her. Tubman knew that although she could achieve freedom in a legal sense, she herself would not feel free unless she had someone to share it with. After escaping from the South, Tubman stated "I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to freedom.... I was a stranger in a strange land." Many slaves had the courage to journey north on the Underground Railroad, however, few slaves had the courage to free themselves, and then plummet themselves back into danger. It is not the action of freeing slaves that Harriet Tubman should be remember for, but rather her fighting spirit and unwillingness to give up until she felt that what was wrong was set right.
Even from early on she “risked her life to lead hundreds of family members and other slaves from the plantation system to freedom” (“Harriet Tubman”). Once Harriet finally escaped, she felt that it was not enough. She became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and did her very best to give others a better chance at their lives’. For example, rather “than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery [by] the Underground Railroad” (“Harriet Tubman”). Harriet was dedicating her life to this and took this problem to heart recognizing that everyone is equal and should never be discriminated. Harriet was faced with several challenges along the way such as having “never recovered from the damage done to her brain and skull [from her slave owner]” (“Harriet Tubman”) and also having a very large price on her head for being a fugitive slave. All of these trials shaped Harriet into a stronger, braver person as she watched her footsteps and never let go of her original motivation. Harriet Tubman played a very large role in U.S. history, slavery, and in almost everyone’s lives as she pushed to the end while suffering for the benefit of
No one was born with the inability to have courage. Courage can be taught through life lessons and difficult situations. Courage passes from one person to another. It is spread like an infection when someone watches a display of courage.
“I learned courage was not absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” - Nelson Mandela. This quote explains a woman named Hailee Lazzaretto. Hailee has pursued her childhood dreams by silent courage. Courage doesn’t have to be saving a life, or doing a quadruple flip off a high bridge into freezing water. Courage can be persuing your dreams from your childhood, and getting through obstacles. Her story is fascinating, and amazing.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said “you gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” Although people are constantly in scary situations, we never really expect to be in one ourselves. But what happens when we are? All of a sudden, nothing seems real anymore. It’s almost as if times stops and it’s just you and your fear looking directly at each other. What now? fgOn February 14th, 2016, my mother had a stroke, and I looked fear directly in the face.
I used to believe that acts of courage were only demonstrated by heros; firefighters, police, men and women in the military. Almost 3 years ago, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. One minute life is normal, the next, your whole world is turned upside down. A question that lingered in my mind was, what makes an ordinary person courageous? After facing a life changing event, I learned that courage cannot be measured by the scale of its significance. Courage is often compressed into a single definition, but there isn't truly one individual annotation of the complex word. What makes courage so elaborate, is it’s different meaning to everyone. To someone, courage may be getting out of bed in the morning. While for others, it's public speaking, or skydiving. Courage can be defined merely by a person’s thoughts on the matter, since a definition for the word does not necessarily exist. However, courage is not limited to just actions; Courage is also finding strength in a difficult time. Fear is an aspect that is found in almost every example of courage. Stepping past a fear, and facing an unknown
Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will (James Stephens). On my first vacation to Wisconsin Dells in the winter of twenty-twelve, I went on an obstacle course that was above a blinding arcade. Walking across the different ledges and ropes was terrifying, but I did not let that stop me from trying. Now I know fear is not something that should hold me back, but something to push me forward.
Courage deals with fear which is regarded as an object of anxiety (Tillich 70). “Existential anxiety . . . cannot be removed but must be taken into the courage to be” (81). Courage is approached by Tillich as man’s power to come to grips with fear (Dreyer 1249).