Recognizing the contributions of a true African-American Patriot - Harriet Tubman (Araminta Ross).

For hundreds of years African-Americans have made significant contributions to our nation. The month of February is designated to recognizing their contributions to it. Black History Month was the brainchild of historian Carter G. Woodson, who wanted to bring national attention to the large contribution of African Americans to the history of their country. He chose February because in this month Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Langston Hughes were born. Actor Morgan Freeman recently expressed disapproval of Black History Month, remarking that "the history of black people is the history of America." In many ways, Freeman is right-African-American history should not be relegated to one chapter in textbooks, one month of the year. But is this writer's opinion, until U.S. history classes and books include the history of African Americans throughout their pages, it is still important to focus on African-American history during February. One patriotic African-American who deserves to be honored is Harriet Tubman, who is perhaps most well known as a Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span, it is said that she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger." This patriot, Harriett Tubman was born a slave in Maryland's Dorchester County around 1820. It is said that at age five or six, she began to work as a house servant. Seven years later she was sent to work in the fields. While she was still in her early teens, she suffered an injury that would follow her for the rest of her life. Always ready to stand up for someone else, Tubman blocked a doorway to protect another field hand from an angry overseer. The overseer picked up and threw a two-pound weight at the field hand. It fell short, striking Tubman on the head. She never fully recovered from the blow, which subjected her to spells in which she would fall into a deep sleep. Around 1844 she married a free black named John Tubman and took his last name. (She was born Araminta Ross; she later changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother.) In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away from white captivity. She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money. She returned to Maryland and escorted her sister and her sister's two children to freedom. She made the dangerous trip back to the South soon after to rescue her brother and two other men. It is reported that on her third return, she went after her husband, only to find he had taken another wife. Undeterred, she found other slaves seeking freedom and escorted them to the North. Harriett Tubman returned to the South again and again. Tubman even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, "You'll be free or die." By 1855-1856, Tubman's capture would have brought a $40,000 reward from the South. On one occasion, she overheard some men reading her wanted poster, which stated that she was illiterate. She promptly pulled out a book and feigned reading it. The ploy was enough to fool the men who would like to capture or kill her for the reward. By all estimates, Harriett Tubman had made the perilous trip to slave country 19 times by 1860, including one especially challenging journey in which she rescued her 70-year-old parents. Of the famed heroine, who became known as "Moses," Frederick Douglass said, "Excepting John Brown -- of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than [Harriet Tubman]." Harriett Tubman Became friends with the leading abolitionists of the day. She took part in many antislavery meetings. During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy. After the war she settled in Auburn, New York, where she would spend the rest of her long life. She died in 1913. Harriet Tubman arose out of the bonds of slavery to become one of the strongest leaders of African-Americans. She was fiercely patriotic because she did not hide from the truth, as most Americans did at the time. Harriet Tubman embodied the very definition of Blacks in America: She was honest, upright, unafraid and loving-a true patriot. If every African-American or better yet, if every "American" would exhibit the patriotic traits of Harriet Tubman, the racial inequities that infect our nation would soon dissolve and be healed. That is my opinion. What's yours?