Harriet Tubman was one of America’s very first civil rights activists, escorting 300 of the estimated 60,000 slaves that escaped the iron grips of slavery. These missions made her one of America’s most iconic heroes. In her time period, this was a title unheard of for women and blacks, making this an achievement especially astounding for Tubman. The influence she built through many efforts in the fields of equality dissipated through America and contributed to a fight that paved the way for the enduring and current struggle against racial oppression still in the country today. The legacy of Harriet Tubman first begins with the establishment of Jamestown in 1619 when ships mainly from the African west coast brought the first generation of enslaved Africans to America. From this, slave codes that “made blacks and their children the property (or ‘chattels’) for life of their white masters” arose (Kennedy, 72). Slavery continued within America until 1865 when the thirteenth amendment (which declared slavery illegal) was ratified
…show more content…
In her late adulthood and elderly years, she opened her home to anyone in need, most commonly impoverished and sickly former slaves and orphaned children. In 1903 she officially donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn which became the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, providing service to “aged and indigent colored people,” it opened its doors in 1908 (Larson, 387). It was also during this time that she became friends with many famous abolitionists of the day such as Franklin Douglass and John Brown. Despite being well known herself, she spent the rest of her life having no other option but to beg for food, money and clothing. Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10th, 1913 falling victim to history’s ironic tendency to leave those who bring good to the world to die in poverty and
In her late adulthood and elderly years, she opened her home to anyone in need, most commonly impoverished and sickly former slaves and orphaned children. In 1903 she officially donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn which became the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, providing service to “aged and indigent colored people,” it opened its doors in 1908 (Larson, 387). It was also during this time that she became friends with many famous abolitionists of the day such as Franklin Douglass and John Brown. Despite being well known herself, she spent the rest of her life having no other option but to beg for food, money and clothing. Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10th, 1913 falling victim to history’s ironic tendency to leave those who bring good to the world to die in poverty and