Harriet Tubman's Legacy Inspires Educator to Help Special Needs Children

TRIBUTE - While employed at a school, my job was to inspire special needs children who had dropped out to return to their classes. One day, carrying many books under my arms, I knocked on the door of a family whose child was too depressed to get out of bed. Sitting down by the boy’s bedside, I began reading out loud to him from a book about Harriet Tubman. Although I had never heard of Harriet Tubman before, I was so inspired by her story that I took the book home and reread it ten times. This experience helped me cherish books more than ever.

Even though the young boy was still in bed when I left, I believe he heard me reading the story of Harriet Tubman, which I felt would help him in ways I might never know.

When Harriet was five years old, she was rented out as a nursemaid and was whipped whenever the baby cried, leaving her with severe emotional and physical scars. Physical violence was a daily reality for Tubman and her family. Harriet later recounted a particular day when she was lashed five times before breakfast. The violence she suffered early in life caused permanent physical injuries, and she carried the scars for the rest of her life.

As an adolescent, Harriet was sent to a dry-goods store for supplies, where she encountered a slave who had left the fields without permission. The man’s owner demanded that Tubman help restrain the runaway. When she refused, he threw a two-pound weight that struck her in the head. Tubman endured seizures, severe headaches, and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life. The people around her, not understanding what seizures were, concluded that Harriet was crazy.

One day, Harriet heard a prophetic voice from within telling her to free slaves and guide them to safety. She answered that call in extraordinary ways. Disguised as a man and carrying a gun, Tubman began her rescue mission. Blinded by fear from lifetimes of enslavement, some slaves refused to follow her. When that happened, she would put her gun to their heads, forcing them to cross the Canadian border to safety, where they would spend the rest of their lives free.

Harriet Tubman’s heroic efforts to free slaves marked the beginning of hope for millions. Her legacy is so profound that future generations might name planets after her in honor of her life-saving actions. Indeed, angels do appear, and one was named Harriet Tubman.

(Judy Joy Jones is an author, actress, artist, photographer, poet, and librettist. Her acting credits include appearances on the Discovery Channel plus in such movies and TV programs as Dreaming of the Dead, Dora the Explorer, Trauma, and The Walking Dead. Judy’s upcoming book When a Saint Calls, Surrender! promises to be inspirational, for it concerns her work with Mother Teresa. This article was published in Street Spirit Newspaper.  Judy is a regular contributor to CityWatch)