What Happened On December 6th?

Harriet Tubman Escaped Oppression (1849)

Tonight on December 6th in the year 1849, historians and I alike, believe that Harriet Tubman, then still known as Minty, made her courageous escape to Philadelphia. Leaving behind the plantation and everything she knew and loved, she pursued the most fundamental thing of all: freedom!

To anyone, the weight of such a decision is absolutely crushing. She left behind family, her familiar world, and the only life she’d ever known. Fear, no doubt, gnawed at her, as it would anyone. But a fierce fire burned within her – which propelled her on a 90 mile escape on foot!

The North Star, her only guide, was her hope in the darkness of the night. Yet, she trudged onward using the Underground Railroad, the lifeline that saved thousands.

Tubman recalled that hunger gnawed at her belly and fatigue weighed on her limbs, while constant danger of patrols haunted her steps. But each sunrise brought renewed determination. Eventually, she adapted to the forest and felt more and more comfortable as time went on.

Along the way, she wasn’t alone. Fellow slaves, united by the yearning for freedom, became companions, comrades, a source of strength and solace.

Eventually, she crossed the Mason-Dixon line, a threshold between Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Delaware. Now on free soil, the weight of her chains were lifted, but the fight was just beginning. Though she was now free, her family’s bondage resonated within her. Eight years later, she finally freed her 70 year-old parents in 1957.

Tubman now known as the “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, was a symbol of hope for countless others seeking the same elusive dream. Her struggles and bravery gave light to freedom, and eventually to the 13th Amendment, which ended slavery 15 years later.