Women of Achievement: Written for the Fireside SchoolsBrawley, Benjamin Griffith
History
Women of Achievement: Written for the Fireside Schools
Brawley, Benjamin Griffith
African American women -- Biography; Women -- Biography
It must not be supposed that those who started on the journey northward
were always strong-spirited characters. The road was rough and attended
by dangers innumerable. Sometimes the fugitives grew faint-hearted and
wanted to turn back. Then would come into play the pistol that Harriet
always carried with her. "Dead niggers tell no tales," said she,
pointing it at them; "you go on or die!" By this heroic method she
forced many to go onward and win the goal of freedom.
Unfailing was Harriet Tubman's confidence in God. A customary form of
prayer for her was, "O Lord, you've been with me in six troubles; be
with me in the seventh." On one of her journeys she came with a party of
fugitives to the home of a Negro who had more than once assisted her and
whose house was one of the regular stations on the so-called Underground
Railroad. Leaving her party a little distance away Harriet went to the
door and gave the peculiar rap that was her regular signal. Not meeting
with a ready response, she knocked several times. At length a window was
raised and a white man demanded roughly what she wanted. When Harriet
asked for her friend she was informed that he had been obliged to leave
for assisting Negroes. The situation was dangerous. Day was breaking and
something had to be done at once. A prayer revealed to Harriet a place
of refuge. Outside of the town she remembered that there was a little
island in a swamp, with much tall grass upon it. Hither she conducted
her party, carrying in a basket two babies that had been drugged. All
were cold and hungry in the wet grass; still Harriet prayed and waited
for deliverance. How relief came she never knew; she felt that it was
not necessarily her business to know. After they had waited through the
day, however, at dusk there came slowly along the pathway on the edge of
the swamp a man clad in the garb of a Quaker. He seemed to be talking to
himself, but Harriet's sharp ears caught the words: "My wagon stands in
the barnyard of the next farm across the way. The horse is in the
stable; the harness hangs on a nail;" and then the man was gone. When
night came Harriet stole forth to the place designated, and found not
only the wagon but also abundant provisions in it, so that the whole
party was soon on its way rejoicing. In the next town dwelt a Quaker
whom Harriet knew and who readily took charge of the horse and wagon for
her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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