PicoBlog

Embracing empathy does not mean allowing for anything to happen. It does not mean being a pushover or overly accommodating. Often it means fighting–fighting hate with love, judgment with grace, fear with hope. Those who embrace empathy do not wait passively for the arc of the moral universe to bend toward justice, but do as Dr. King did, and work tirelessly to bend it.

Harriet Tubman fought with love. She grew up “like a neglected weed” and described slavery as “the next thing to hell.” When her enslaver died she knew that his wife would need to sell some of the enslaved people living there. Tubman took no chances and escaped on her own. When she crossed the line, alone, into the free state of Pennsylvania she said, “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.” From hell to heaven, Tubman knew her worth and her rights as a human being and refused to settle. For her, this stemmed from a spiritual belief: “God’s time is always near. . .He meant I should be free.”

Having escaped slavery, it wasn’t enough for Tubman to be free. 

“I had crossed the line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom, I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with the old folks, and my brothers and sisters. But to this solemn resolution I came; I was free, and they should be free also; I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all there.”

Tubman was willing to risk her own freedom so that her family and others might enjoy its fruits. She was incredibly resourceful, using disguises, songs with encoded meanings, and every mode of transportation to rescue 70 people over thirteen harrowing ventures, including, but not limited to, her family members. Above all, Tubman brought sheer determination and decisiveness to her leadership (just look at the picture below as evidence). When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, endangering any escaped enslaved people in the north, Tubman refused to give up, but carved her underground railroad up to Canada. 

This fierce will was born out of deep empathy for those suffering. “I have heard their groans and sighs, and seen their tears, and I would give every drop of blood in my veins to free them.” 

Through the impossibly difficult years of the Civil War, Tubman did not stand by and hope things would work out. She continued to fight. During the Civil War, she was a scout, a spy, a recruiter and a leader. The woman who rescued 70 enslaved people through the Underground Railroad was the same who became the first woman to lead an armed military militia. In this episode she was the liaison between other Union officers and the enslaved people, being a trusted source. As the moment arrived, in the middle of the night, hundreds of enslaved people came running out–with many crying babies and children. As these escapees panicked and struggled to get onto the Union gunboats, she sang a song and calmed the group down. 

She never received pay or pension for her service, and despite this injustice and her petitions, she continued to serve. Years later, with many of her own resource challenges, she established a home for elderly Black people. This same home she established was one where she lived out her own final days of life. 

Additional Resources: 

• Among the many biographies on Tubman, this one is interesting given the first-hand interviews the author conducted with Tubman. The proceeds from the book, published in 1886, went to support Tubman’s home for the elderly. While some of the information is inaccurate, the story certainly captures her leadership characteristics well.  

• We learned from the depiction of Tubman in this 2019 film, and loved Cynthia Erivo’s performance. And don’t miss Erivo’s song, “Stand Up” that accompanied the film.

• For those in the Mid-Atlantic area, our family benefited from a visit to this National Park Service site where Tubman grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In addition to the museum and visitors’ center, the wetlands surrounding this site allowed us to envision her heroism and the harsh conditions she braved.

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