Friday, March 1, 2013

March is Women's History Month

  Dere's two things I've got a right to,

and dese are, Death or Liberty — one or tother I 
mean to have. 
                              Harriet Tubman

I'm getting a late start this year but I'd rather be a little messy, than to have nothing at all.  So I'm going to start Women's History Month off with this book I found titled;
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman by Sarah H. Bradford


 I will post the authors preface then link to a PDF version of the book and also an archchive containing several different applicable formats. The book is in the public domain so you may share it in any way you want to.  Listen here to this audio file about Harriet.

PREFACE

  It is proposed in this little book to give a plain
and unvarnished account of some scenes and adven-
tures in the life of a woman who, though one of
earth's lowly ones, and of dark-hued skin, has
shown an amount of heroism in her character rarely-
possessed by those of any station in life. Her name
(we say it advisedly and without exaggeration)
deserves to be handed down to posterity side by
side with the names of Joan of Arc, Grace Darling,
and Florence Nightingale ; for not one of these
women has shown more courage and power of en-
durance in facing danger and death to relieve hu-
man suffering, than has this woman in her heroic
and successful endeavors to reach and save all whom
she might of her oppressed and suffering race, and
to pilot them from the land of Bondage to the
promised land of Liberty. Well has she been call-
ed " Moses" for she has been a leader and deliverer
unto hundreds of her people.



2 PREFACE.

Worn down by her sufferings and fatigues, her
health permanently affected by the cruelties to
which she has been subjected, she is still laboring
to the utmost limit of her strength for the support
of her aged parents, and still also for her afflicted
people — by her own efforts supporting two schools
for Freedmen at the South, and supplying them
with clothes and books ; never obtruding herself,
never asking for charity, except for " her people."

It is for the purpose of aiding her in ministering
to the wants of her aged parents, and in the hope
of securing to them the little home which they are
in danger of losing from inability to pay the whole
amount due — which amount was partly paid when
our heroine left them to throw herself into the work
of aiding our suffering soldiers — that this little ac-
count, drawn from her by persevering endeavor, is
given to the friends of humanity.

The writer of this story has till very lately known
less personally of the subject of it, than many others
to whom she has for years been an object of inter-
est and care. But through relations and friends in
Auburn, and also through Mrs, Commodore Swift
of Geneva, and her sisters, who have for many years
known and esteemed this wonderful woman, she
has heard tales of her deeds of heroism which



PKEFACE. 3

seemed almost too strange for belief, and were in-
vested with the charm of romance.

During a sojourn of some months in the city of
Auburn, while the war was in progress, the writer
used to see occasionally in her Sunday-school class
the aged mother of Harriet, and also some of those
girls who had been brought from the South by this
remarkable woman. She also wrote letters for the
old people to commanding officers at the South, mak-
ing inquiries about Harriet, and received answers
telling of her untiring devotion to our wounded and
sick soldiers, and of her efficient aid in various ways
to the cause of the Union.

By the graphic pen of Mrs. Stowe, the incidents
of such a life as that of the subject of this little
memoir might be wrought up into a tale of thrilling
interest, equaling, if not exceeding, anything in her
world-renowned " Uncle Tom's Cabin ; " but the
story of Harriet Tubman needs not the drapery of
fiction ; the bare unadorned facts are enough to stir
the hearts of the friends of humanity, the friends of
liberty, the lovers of their country.

There are those who will sneer, there are those
who have already done so, at this quixotic attempt
to make a heroine of a black woman, and a slave ;
but it may possibly be that there are some natures,



4 PREFACE.

though concealed under fairer skins, who have not
the capacity to comprehend such general and self-
sacrificing devotion to the cause of others as that
here delineated, and therefore they resort to scorn
and ridicule, in order to throw discredit upon the
whole story.

Much has been left out which would have been
highly interesting, because of the impossibility of
substantiating by the testimony of others the truth
of Harriet's statements. But whenever it has been
possible to find those who were cognizant with the
facts stated, they have been corroborated in every
particular.

A few years hence and we seem to see a gather-
ing where the wrongs of earth will be righted, and
Justice, long delayed, will assert itself, and perform
its office. Then not a few of those who had
esteemed themselves the wise and noble of this
world, " will begin with shame to take the lowest
place ; " while upon Harriet's dark head a kind hand
will be placed, and in her ear a gentle voice will
sound, saying : " Friend ! come up higher ! "

S. H. B.


PDF Version here  requires an Acrobat Reader or Preview

Other formats Read Online, EPUB, Kindle, Daisy, Full Text, DjVu

This is a book to start Women's History Month off.


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