Black History Month, Continued

Harriet Tubman
1820 – March 10, 1913

(Because she was a slave, and owners did not record their slaves' birthdates,

the exact date of Harriet's birth is unknown -- different accounts list 1820 or 1821.)

Campus Ministry continues to celebrate Black History Month by hearing the words and honoring the contributions of selected African-American women at the beginning of each Mass. Last Sunday we paid homage to Harriet Tubman.

"Born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Tubman gained international acclaim as an Underground Railroad operator, abolitionist, Civil War spy and nurse, suffragist, and humanitarian. After escaping from enslavement in 1849, Tubman dedicated herself to fighting for freedom, equality, and justice for the remainder of her long life, earning her the biblical name "Moses" and a place among the nation's most famous historical figures."

In her own words:

"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."

"I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land."

"We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped."

"I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger."