Voices from the past

VOICES FROM HISTORY

“And honor to Crispus Attucks, who was leader and voice that day:
The first to defy, and the first to die, with Maverick, Carr and Gray.
Call it riot or revolution, or mob crowd as you may,
Such deaths have been seeds of nations, such lives shall be honored for ay.”
Poet, John Boyle O’Reilly

“Fire! Fire and be damned!” The six foot two inch tall escaped slave pushed to the front of the crowd that day. He was prepared to day for freedom. Freedom for others not for himself. He understood, that once freedom took hold it would spread to all.

(Slavery has been fruitful in giving itself names. It has been called “the peculiar institution,”…It has been called by a great many names, and it will call itself by yet another name; and you and I and all of us had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume, in what new skin this old snake will come froth next.)
Frederick Douglass

Slavery did in fact take on new names. It became know as “sharecropping,” “welfare,” “projects,” “public schools,” and “good intentions.” Frederick Douglass was right, we must keep watch for the new names of slavery, we must also keep watch for the new opportunities of freedom. Mason Weaver: The New Underground Railroad. http://www.masonweaver.com

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will…Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get.” Frederick Douglass

Boston Commonwealth, July 10, 1863:

HARRIET TUBMAN
Col. Montgomery and his gallant band of 300 black soldiers, under the guidance of a black woman, dashed into the enemy’s country, struck a bold and effective blow, destroying millions of dollars worth of commissary stores, cotton and lardly dwellings, and striking terror into the hearts of rebel-dom, brought off near 800 slaves and thousands of dollars worth of property, without losing a man or receiving a scratch. It was a glorious consummation.

After they were all fairly well disposed of in the Beaufort charge, they  were addressed in  strains of thrilling eloquence by their gallant deliverer, to which they responded in a song….”There is a white robe for thee,” a song so appropriate and so heartfelt and cordial as to bring unbidden tears.

The Colonel was followed by a speech for the black woman who led the raid, and under whose inspiration it was organized and conducted. For sound sense and real native eloquence, her address would do honor to any man, and it created a sensation…

Since the rebellion she was devoted herself to her great work of delivering the bondsman, with an energy and sagacity that cannot be exceeded.

Tubman returned dozens of times into the enemies territory. She did no in spite of a $40,000 Dead or Alive bounty on her head. She led countless slaves to freedom and never lost a soul. The Underground Railroad’s best conductor!