Harriet Tubman

Araminta Harriet Ross, better known as Harriet Tubman, was born in 1820 in Maryland. Tubman was born a slave, so she encountered many brutal beatings. The worst beating was when she had a two pound weight thrown directly at her head causing her narcolepsy (having seizures or passing out randomly) for the rest of her life. Even though she was faced with this horrible obstacle, she was still a brave, kind, and motivational guide for over three hundred slaves.

After already making her way to freedom in Canada, Harriet Tubman continued to risk being back into slavery or possibly being killed. She first escaped in 1849, but she felt it was her job to free more than just herself. Through a span of ten years, she made a total of nineteen trips from the south to Canada. Words cannot express how courageous she really was; she was a fugitive, narcoleptic and she had little to no help, yet she still made she wasn't the only one being saved.

Even though the trips were long and hard, Tubman managed to keep a kind heart. On the trips she would sing and tell stories to the fugitives. One of the songs she most often sang was "Go Down Moses". From this song, she was given the nickname Moses, because all slaves thought of her as their Moses. All the slaves seeking freedom would only turn to her because they thought she was the only option.

How did she manage to get all those slaves to go with her? Not only was she brave and kind, she was also a very motivational person. One of her best known sayings is "we got to go free or die." On one of her hardest trips, a slave said, "Let me go back. It is better to be a slave than to suffer like this in order to be free." With talk like that the only way to get through to them was to threaten them. She often held up guns to the unwilling fugitive, and this seemed to work because no slave ever returned to slavery.

As you can see, Harriet Tubman was not just a typical fugitive. She risked her own life over and over again to make sure people were given the freedom they deserve. Her acts of bravery, kindness, and motivation make her the true definition of a hero.