The Enslaved Slave Hero

Slavery can never be forgotten when we talk about freedom in the world, most especially in Nigeria. The history of the world spans many cultures, and even religions from old days to the present day.

Portuguese adventurers who sailed southeast along the Gulf of Guinea in 1472 landed on the coast of what became Nigeria. Others followed. They found people of varying cultures. Some lived in towns ruled by kings with nobility and courtiers.

The first African slaves landed in the Portugese port of Lagos in 1442.
During this period of slavery, there happened to be a brave woman, named Harriet Tubman. She was a Nurse and also a Civil Right activist. She was born a slave on a plantation in Maryland. Historians think she was born in 1820, or possibly 1821. This inadequate assurance of her birth year was due to no other reason other than, birth records weren't kept by most slave owners.

Her birth name was Araminta Ross, but she took the name of her mother, Harriet, when she was 13 years old. Life as a slave was difficult. Harriet first lived in a one-room cabin with her family that included eleven children.

When she was only six years old, she was loaned out to another family where she helped take care of a baby. She was sometimes beaten and all she got to eat was crumble from the table. Right about the year 1849, Harriet took a deep and life-threatening decision, as with bravery that lurks beneath her exfoliated skin, she decided to escape!

She would use the Underground Railroad. After a long and scary trip she made it to Pennsylvania and there she was at last free!

Harriet became famous as an Underground Railroad conductor. She led nineteen different escapes from the south and helped around 300 slaves to escape.

She became the "Moses" of the time! Harriet was truly brave. She risked her life and freedom to help others.

She also helped her family, including her mother and father, to escape.
But one credit to her bravery that demands immortalisation was the fact that she was never caught during her embarks on various escapes. Not only that, she never lost a slave who she helped to gain freedom!

She's worth acknowledging!