In honor of Black History month we are featuring African Americans who helped build our country. I chose Harriet Tubman as my hero. Harriet Tubman is an African American born into slavery in 1820 who risked her life to lead hundreds slaves through the underground railroad, and later died on March 10th 1913.
(Pic credit: https://www.nps.gov/people/harriet-tubman.htm)
Harriet Tubman is my hero because she is a powerful independent woman who helped change history. She volunteered to be a spy for the Union during the Civil War to find safe houses to escort African Americans out of slavery in the south. By both finding out this information and personally travelling with these slaves to free them of the plantation systems in the South she showed her courage and strength in her own abilities. Travelling 20 miles a day, she rescued around 300 slaves during her time as a conductor of the underground railroad. She proudly said that she had never lost a passenger during her trips, and she has never gone off of her track to freedom.
After her being a conductor, she remained active in the fight for freedom during the Civil War. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the war, where she guided the Combahee River Raid, liberating over 700 slaves. Even after the Civil War had ended, Tubman dedicated the rest of her life to helping impoverished former slaves and the elderly. She was commemorated after her death with a plaque on the courthouse. She was also celebrated by having dozens of schools named after her and her story taught through history lessons in every school across the country.
(Pic credit: http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2016/04/21/harriet-tubman-underground-rai…)