Slavery: Harriet Tubman And The Underground Railroad

In my American History classes I have always found the topic of slavery interesting because in my head and the way I was raised, the idea of slavery is unfathomable and I cannot believe it had ever been an issue. Through this topic I heard about Harriet Tubman the creator of the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in 1820 and escaped slavery in 1849. I admire Harriet Tubman because when she was free, she chose to risk here freedom in order to help her family and friends. It is a character like Harriet Tubman’s that makes a good leader. She was able to set up a network of safe houses and rescue hundreds from slavery. The fact that Harriet Tubman had the courage to risk her freedom in order to save others is hard to believe because during her time as a slave she had endure so much physical violence; one time she had been struck in the head by a two-pound weight which caused her to endure seizures, severe headaches and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life. I admire Harriet Tubman because of her courage to risk the freedom she worked so hard to gain in order to help others gain that same freedom. What I like to see in a leader is the ability to meet people where they are at, Harriet Tubman set up a network of houses in order to create a safe route for slaves to escape to freedom; Harriet Tubman
returned to the place she had already escaped from. What Harriet Tubman did is something many other would not have done, not because they did not care about the others, but because they were too scared to risk getting trapped again. From this I learned that the risk is worth the reward! If Harriet Tubman had gotten captured and forced back into slavery I just know she would have been okay with it because she knew she had been able to help hundreds of other reach freedom. Harriet Tubman was selfless and truly cared about others and their needs before her own. If I could meet and talk to Harriet Tubman I would want to ask her why she did what she did.
I can assume it is her character and all, but what was her motivating force. I would want to know how she felt every time she crossed back into the danger zone, the area where if she were captured should be forced back into slavery if not killed. Would she have done anything differently knowing know how it turned out. Harriet Tubman probably believed what she was doing was something that anyone else would have done if they had the resources, but what she had accomplish was life changing for many and something that sticks out in
history. For this assignment I could not think of who I wanted to write about, but something I realized about myself is that I am not a huge risk taker which is what lead me to looking into Harriet Tubman more. She took an enormous risk in order to help hundreds of slaves gain their freedom. I could never imagine taking a risk that huge and hope I can continue to learn from leaders like Harriet Tubman the importance of taking risks when the reward can far outweigh the initial risk.