The Road Least Traveled. Harriet Tubman was not afraid to fight for the rights of African-Americans. Her story is one of dedication and inspiration.

Essay by Lauren2k4High School, 12th grade December 2003

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The Road Least Traveled

Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the "Moses of her people". Over the course of ten years, and at a great personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. She later became a leader in the abolitionist movement, and during the Civil War she served as a spy for the federal forces in South Carolina as well as a nurse. After the war, Harriet Tubman returned to her home in Auburn, New York where she played an active role in Women's Suffrage. Harriet Tubman's life is a monument to courage and determination that continues to stand out in American history. By creating her own destiny, not letting her goal die, and giving a hand to those in need Harriet Tubman has greatly influenced my life. A more ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found among the most unfortunate -looking farm hands of the South.

Being one of those farm hands meant the one was held in bondage as the property of another, a slave. This was the condition in which Harriet Tubman was born into as Araminta Ross in 1820 in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She was raised under harsh conditions, subjected to whippings even as a small child. Unlike the narrator of The Road Not Taken she had no right or claim in the choices concerning her life. However, Harriet Tubman would not settle for the life as a slave and during one night in 1849 she ran away from her master's plantation in Maryland for the fear that she was to be sold. On her voyage to freedom she was introduced to the Underground Railroad and after many ordeals she reached Philadelphia. "I looked at my hands...