02 - Women of Achievement by Benjamin Griffith Brawley

This remarkable volume, published in 1919 by the American Womens Baptist Home Mission Society, highlights the vital contributions of African American women. It eloquently addresses the often-overlooked invisible work performed by these women as mothers and wives, while also showcasing their significant roles in various industries, including medicine, education, and the arts. Additionally, this collection features inspiring short biographies of five courageous women who have made a lasting impact. - Summary by kathrinee

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section number one of Women of Achievement. This is the
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Women of Achievement by Benjamin Griffith Brawley, Chapter number two,
Harriet Tubman. Greatest of all the heroines of anti slavery

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was Harriet Tubman. This brave woman not only escaped from
bondage herself, but afterwards made nineteen distinct trips to the South,
especially to Maryland, and altogether aided more than three hundred
souls in escaping from their fetters. Aramanta Ross, better known
by the Christian name Harriet that she adopted and her

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married name of Tubman, was born about eighteen twenty one
in Dorchester County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, the
daughter of Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both of whom
were slaves, but who were privileged to be able to
live their lives in a state of singular fidelity. Harriet
had ten brothers and sisters, not less than three of

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whom she rescued from slavery, and in eighteen fifty seven,
at great risk to herself, she also took away to
the north her age father and mother. When Harriet was
not more than six years old, she was taken away
from her mother and sent ten miles away to learn
the trade of weaving. Among other things. She was set
to the task of watching muskrat traps, which work compelled

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her to wide much in water. Once she was forced
to work when she was already ill with the measles,
she became very sick, and her mother now persuaded her
master to let the girl come home for a while.
Soon after Harriet entered her teens, she suffered a misfortune
that embarrassed her all the rest of her life. She
had been hired out as a field hand. It was

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the fall of the year, and the slaves were busy
at such tasks as husking corn and cleaning up wheat.
One of them ran away. He was found. The oversteers
swore that he should be whipped, and called on Harriet
and some others that happened to be near to help
tie him. She refused, and as the slave made his escape,
she placed herself in a door to help stop pursuit

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of him. Thoverseer caught up a two pound weight and
threw it at the fugitive, but it missed its mark
and struck Harriet a blow on the head that was
almost fatal. Her skull was broken, and from this result
had a pressure on her brain, which all her life
left her subject to fits of some nolency. Sometimes these
would come upon her in the midst of a conversation

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or any task at which she might be engaged. Then
after a while the spell would pass and she could
go on as before. After Harriet recovered sufficiently from her blow,
she lived for five or six years in the home
of one John Stewart, working at first in the house,
but afterwards hiring her time. She performed the most arduous
labor in order to get the fifty or sixty dollars

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ordinarily exacted of a woman in her situation. She drove oxen, plowed,
cut wood, and did many other such things with her
firm belief in providence. In her later years she referred
to this work as a blessing in disguise, as it
gave her the firm constitution necessary for the trials and
hardships that were before her. Sometimes she worked for her father,

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who was a timber inspector and superintendent the cutting and
hauling of large quantities of up timber for Baltimore ship Yards.
Her regular task in this employment was the cutting a
path cord of wood a day. About eighteen forty four,
Harriet was married to a freeman named John Tubman. She
had no children. Two years after her escape, in eighteen

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forty nine, she traveled back to Maryland for her husband,
only to find him married to another woman and no
longer caring to live with her. She felt the blow keenly,
but did not despair, and more and more gave her
thought to what was to be the great work of
her life. It was not long after her marriage that
Harriet began seriously to consider the matter of escape from bondage.

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Already in her mind, her people were the Israelites in
the land of Egypt, and far off in the north
somewhere was the land of Cannon. In eighteen forty nine,
the master of her plantation died, and word passed around
that at any moment she and two of her brothers
were to be sold to the far South. Harriet, now
twenty four years old, resolved to put her long cherished

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dreams into effect. She held a consultation with her brothers,
and they decided to start with her at once that
very night for the North. She could not go away, however,
without giving some intimation of her purpose to the friends
she was leaving behind, as it was not advisable for
slaves to be seen too much talking together. She went

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among her old associates, singing as follows, when Dad, our
old chariot comes, I'm going to leave you. I'm bound
for to promised land. Friends, I'm going to leave you.
I'm sorry friends, to leave you. Farewell, oh farewell, But
I'll meet you in the morning. Farewell, oh farewell. I'll

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meet you in the mornin when you reached a promise
land on the utter side of Jordan. For I'm bound
for to promised Land. The brothers started with her, but
the way was unknown, the North was far away, and
they were constantly in terror of her capture. They turned back,
and Harriet, after watching their retreating forms, again fixed her
eyes on the North star. I had reasoned this out

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in my mind, said she. There was one of two
things I had a right to liberty or death. If
I could not have one, I would have the utter,
for no man should take me alive. I would fight
for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and
when de time came for me to go, the Lord
would let him take me. And so, without money and
without friends, says missus Bradford, she started on through unknown regions,

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walking by night, hiding by day, but always conscious of
an invisible pillar of cloud by day, and a fire
by night, under the guidance of which she journeyed or rested.
Without knowing whom to trust or how near the pursuers
might be, she carefully felt her way, and by her
native cunning or by God given wisdom, she managed to
apply to the right people for food and sometimes for shelter,

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though often her bed was only the cold ground, and
her watchers the stars of night. After many long and
weary days of travel, she found that she had passed
the magic line, which then divided the land of bondage
from the land of freedom. At length she came to Philadelphia,
where she found work and the opportunity to earn a
little money. It was at this time, in eighteen fifty one,

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after she had been employed for some months, that she
went back to Maryland for her husband, only to find
that he had not been true. In December eighteen fifty
she had visited Baltimore, and brought away a sister and
two children. A few months afterwards, she took away a
brother and two other men. In December eighteen fifty one
she led out a party of eleven, among them being

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another brother and his wife. With these she journeyed to Canada,
for the fugitive slave law was now in force, and,
as she quaintly said, there was no safety except under
the paw of the British lion. The winter, however, was
hard on the poor fugitives, who, unused to the climate
of Canada, had to chop wood in the forests in
the snow. Often they were frostbitten, hungry, and almost always

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poorly clad. But Harriet was caring for them. She kept
house for her brother, and the fugitives boarded with her.
She begged for them and prayed for them, and somehow
got them through the hard winter. In the spring, she
returned to the States, as usual, working in hotels and
families as a cook. In eighteen fifty two she once
more went to Maryland, this time bringing away nine fugitives.

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It must not be supposed that those who darted on
the journey northward were always strong spirited characters. The road
was rough and attended by dangers innumerable. Sometimes the fugitives
grew fainthearted and wanted to turn back. Then would come
in to play the pistol that Harriet always carried with her.
Dead Niggers tell no tales, said she, pointing it at them.
You go on or aye. By this heroic method she

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forced many to go onward, and in the goal of freedom.
Unfailing was harrt Tudman'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 the party
of fugitives to the home of a Negro who had
more than once assisted her, and whose home was one
of the regular stations on the so called underground railroad.

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Leaving her party a little distance away, Harriet went to
the door and gave the peculiar wrap that was her
regular signal. Not meeting with a ready response, she knocked
several times. At length, the window was ray 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,

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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.

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Our relief came, she never knew. She felt it was
not necessarily her business to know. After they had waited
through the day, however, at dusk there came slowly along
the path with on the edge of the swamp a
man clawed 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 barn yard of

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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,

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a Quaker whom Harriet knew, and who readily took charge
of the horse and wagon for her. Naturally, the work
of such a woman could not long escape the attention
of the abolitionists. She became known too Thomas Garrett, the
great hearted Quaker of Wilmington, who did not less than
three thousand fugitives to escape, and also to Garrett Smith,

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Window Phillips, William H. Seward, F. B. Sanborn, and many
other notable men interested in the emancipation of the negro
From time to time she was supplied with money, but
she never spent this for her own use, setting it
a side in case of need on the next one
of her journeys. In her earlier years, however, before she
became known, she gave of her own slender means for

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the work. Between eighteen fifty two and eighteen fifty seven,
she made but one or two journeys. Because of the
increasing vigilance of slaveholders and the Fugitive Slave law, great
rewards were offered for her capture, and she was several
times on the point of being taken, but always escaped
by her shrewd wit and what she considered warnings from heaven.

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While she was intensely practical, she was also a most
firm believer in dreams. In eighteen fifty seven she made
her most venturesome journey, this time taking with her to
the North or old parents, who were no longer able
to walk such distances as she was forced to go
by night. Accordingly, she had to hire a wagon for them,
and it took all of her ingenuity to get them

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through Maryland and Delaware. At length, however, she got them
to Canada, where they spent the winter as the climate
was too rigorous. However, she afterwards brought them down to
New York and settled them in a home in Auburn,
New York that she had purchased on very reasonable terms
from Secretary Seward. Somewhat later, a mortgage on the place
had to be lifted, and Harriet now made a noteworthy

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visit to Boston, returning with a handsome sum toward the
payment of her debt. At this time she met John
Brown more than once seemed to have learned something of
his plans, and after the raid at Harper's Ferry and
the execution of Brown. She glorified him as a hero,
her veneration even becoming religious. Her last visit to Maryland
was made in December eighteen sixty. In spite of the

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agitated condition of the country and the great watchfulness of slaveholders,
she brought away with her seven fugitives, one of an infant.
After the war, Harriet Tubman made Auburn her home, establishing
there a refuge for aged negroes. She married again, so
that she is sometimes referred to as Harriet Tubman Davis.
She died at a very advanced age March tenth, nineteen thirteen.

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On Friday, June twelfth, nineteen fourteen, a tablet in her
honor was unveiled at the Auditorium in Albany. It was
provided by the Cayuga County Historical Association. Doctor Booker T.
Washington was the chief speaker of the occasion, and the
ceremonies were attended by a great crowd of people. The
tributes to this heroic woman were remarkable. Wendell Philip said

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of her, in my opinion, there are a few captains,
perhaps few colonels, who have done more for the loyal
cause since the war began, and few men who did
before that time more for the colored race than are
fearless and most sagacious. Friend Harriet F. B. Sandborn wrote
that she did could scarcely be credited on the best authority.

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William H. Seward, who labored unsuccessfully to get a pension
for her granted by Congress, consistently praised her noble spirit.
Abraham Lincoln gave her ready audience and lent a willing
ear to whatever she had to say. Frederick Douglas wrote
to her, the difference between us is very marked. Most
what I have done and suffered in the service of

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our cause has been in public, and I have received
much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on
the other hand, have labored in a private way. I
have wrought in the day you and the night I
have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction
that comes of being approved by the multitude. While the
most you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling,

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scarred and footsore bondmen and women whom you have led
out of the house of bondage, and whose heart felt
God bless you, has been your only reward of each
mold was Harriet Tutman, philanthropist and patriot. Bravest and noblest
of all the heroines of freedom. End of Chapter two,

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Harriet Tubman recording by April six zero nine zero, California,
United States of America,