Harriet Tubman is this month’s featured Suffragette, in honor of Black History Month. She was the world’s most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad. Born into slavery in early 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland made 13 journeys from the north to the south to free 100’s of enslaved people, including her family and friends. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate slave owner threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another slave, but hitting her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. These experiences, combined with her Methodist upbringing, led her to become devoutly religious. She died in 1913 at the age of 93.
As a suffragette, she gave speeches about her experiences as a woman slave at various anti-slavery conventions, out of which the women’s voting rights movement emerged. And so, as we celebrate the Centennial Women’s Right to Vote and Black History Month, I leave you with a quote from one of Harriet Tubman’s relatives: “There is worth in every person; and potential in everyone.” To learn more about Harriet Tubman, visit https://allthatsinteresting.com/harriet-tubman and discover what female heroism is. Read, Beyond The Underground Railroad: Harriet Tubman’s Journey From Slave to Spy to Historical Icon, by Marco Margaritoff.