| Meet Harriet Tubman |
"Thank you Brother Ely, I can always depend on you to take care of me."
"How Ya'll folks doing today?"
"So nice of ya'll to visit me here in Auburn.
Did you come to here some stories about the Underground Railroad?"
"Well ya'll came to the right place, cause I got some stories to tell ya'll about my travels."
"Now, I always like to start by telling folks what it was I was running away from, that slavery, I hated it. I grew up on the Eastern Shores of Maryland, Dorchester County.
When I was born, my name was Araminta Ross, later I changed my name to Harriet. I grew up as a slave, working hard even as a young child. Times was hard." "I got married to John Tubman when I was twenty-five. Now John was free, but I was still a slave.
One day the Lord let me know that I had the right to one or two things, my liberty or death, and if I couldn't have one, I'd have the other. I left on the Underground Railroad, all alone with nobody but Jesus to walking with me."
"Now ya'll know the Underground Railroad wasn't no real train on no track, it was all about people working together to help other people, colored people, white people, Indian people too.
"Ya'll know I made nineteen trips on that Underground Railroad, and my train never jumped the
track. I never lost a single passenger. Never did."
"I just keep telling them to keep going, if ya'll tired, keep going, if ya'll hungry, keep going, if ya'll scared, keep going, if ya'll want to taste freedom... Keep Going!"
"Well that part of my life was years ago, I'm 92-years-old now.
But, I never stopped taking care of my people or fighting for our rights.
"Did ya'll know I served in the Civil War?
I was a spy, a scout and a nurse. I was one of the first women in this country
that worked behind the enemy lines.
I lead a raid down in South Carolina that freed close to 800 people in one night."
"Folks always ask me, 'Aunt Harriet how did you do all that?' I always tell them,
"It wasn't me, it was theLord, just as long as he wanted me to work,
I knew he would protect me and then when he didn't need me no more,
I was ready to go."
"After the War was over, when we were all free, it was time to fight some more."
"We had to fight for the right to vote, the right to go where we want to go and sit where we want to sit."
"I spoke at some of the same meetings as Susan B. Anthony in the Women's Suffrage Movement."
"When us colored women decided we need our own movement, I was right there with Josephine Ruffin, Mary
Church Terrell, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett and Frances E. W. Harper,
I was one of the founders of the National Association of Colored Women, our motto was 'Lifting as we climb.' "
"Well now, I live here in the convalescent home that my church built on my property.
The Thompson Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church named this home after me,
Brother Ely takes good care of me here. I likes it here, and he always sings my favorite songs. Ya'll want to hear Brother Ely sing?
The next time ya'll come, he will sing for ya'll. Just let us know when ya'll want to visit, so he can wake me up.
I love to visit and tell my stories.
Ya'll children take care now."
