Harriet Tubman’s 20 Inspiring Quotes

Harriet Tubman’s 20 Inspiring Quotes

Harriet Tubman has always been viewed as the saviour of all enslaved men, women, and children. She devoted her life to rescuing the enslaved people in the mid-1800s and it was announced recently that she would replace Andrew Jackson on the 20-dollar bill. That is how big of a deal she was. I have always admired her efforts and resilience when it came to fighting for social justice and refusing to look back.  I honestly don’t know of many people who would have done achieved what she did had they been in her shoes. She was popularly referred to as ‘General Tubman,’ and ‘Moses of her people.’ Even more impressive is that this historical icon bravely led enslaved black people to freedom without ever getting caught. Impressive right? Many don’t know that she was also a Civil War spy and scout, a devout Christian, a nurse, a suffragist, a wife, and a mother who opened an elder care facility later in life. She was a lady who wore many hats and thanks to that, we will forever remember her as a legend. Let’s explore some of the most inspiring quotes that Harriet came up with.

1. “I grew up like a neglected weed — ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it. Then I was not happy or contented…”

Photographer: Horatio Seymour Squyer, 1848 – 18 Dec 1905, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

2. “Every time I saw a white man I was afraid of being carried away”

Jean-Baptiste Debret, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I can only imagine! At the time, the master was everything and with time, the race was associated with supremacy and intimidation. Every time they saw the white master coming in, the question would be, “Who is next? Who will be carried away next?”

3. “Slavery is the next thing to hell”

Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Indeed! Slavery was not only inhuman and ruthless. It was pure hell! Just imagine living every day in fear wondering when you will be tied to a tree and beaten senseless just for a very minor mistake. It was hell, or rather what hell must be like due to the neverending pain and chaos. It’s hard to fathom the kind of life they all led.

4. “If a person would send another into bondage, he would, it appears to me, be bad enough to send him into hell if he could”

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) and either William Hackwood or Henry Webber; “Josiah Wedgewood…produced the emblem as a jasper-ware cameo at his pottery factory. Although the artist who designed and engraved the seal is unknown, the design for the cameo is attributed to William Hackwood or to Henry Webber, who were both modelers at the Wedgewood factory.” (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h67.html PBS]), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This tests how low a human being can go when he or she is given a little power over another human being. If you ever want to test your humanity, have power and see how you end up treating people. Tubman made a good point. If a person can be okay with sending another person to bondage then he wouldn’t even blink twice when it came to sending him to hell. In the long run, human beings can be vicious. It’s just a matter of when.

5. “I have heard their groans and sighs, and seen their tears, and I would give every drop of blood in my veins to free them”

John G. Darby, illustrator; W.J. Moses, printer; stereotyped by Dennis Bro’s & Co., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

And this is why Harriet Tubman will forever have the respect of any person relentlessly fighting for social justice and equality. For Harriet, the tears of the other enslaved people tore at her heart and that’s why the moment she managed to escape, instead of thinking only about her freedom and moving on with life, she went back for them. She didn’t even think twice. She indeed meant he words when she said she would give her blood to free them.

6. “Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave”

Lindsley, Harvey B. (1842-1921), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

That’s the thing. When suffering becomes too much, you only think and fantasize about how you will gain freedom and find a way out of that suffering. Once you achieve that freedom by whatever means, you never look back. You don’t even think about the people you left behind as you cannot imagine going back to that hell. A bit selfish of course, but also very human. It was therefore so unheard of and admirable that Harriet Tubman went back to that hell and rescued whoever she could.

7. “We would rather stay in our native land if we could be as free there as we are here”

Photographer unknown. Dated ca 1860s., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Indeed. Freedom is something always taken for granted until it is taken away from you. It means so much when you realize that freedom is something that is humane. It is a means of letting a human being experience the beauty of life without being curtailed by all the pain and uncertainties.

8. “I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all here”

Wikimaribarre, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tubman risked her whole life rescuing the enslaved people and never gave up on anyone.  She was a staunch Christian, always praying for guidance, and throughout the whole journey of rescuing slaves, she would pray. In her autobiography, this is outlined so clearly that she often dedicated her plans to God.

9. “I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other”

Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Imagine being in a position where you have to shout at the top of your lungs that you have the right to liberty and death. I mean, it should be common sense because every human being is entitled to that. In this world, however, these were luxuries you couldn’t even afford to have.

10. “For no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me”

Lindsley, Harvey B., 1842-1921, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Indeed. When the time came, she decided she would go out in peace but before then, she would fight with everything she had to make sure that her dignity and freedom were never again taken away from her. This is what made Tubman so courageous and an embodiment of hope and resilience.

11. “God’s time is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free”

John G. Darby, illustrator; W.J. Moses, printer; stereotyped by Dennis Bro’s & Co., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What’s even more admirable is Harriet’s faith in God. Even in the face of all that suffering and pain, Tubman would still pray and dedicate everything she had to God. The North Star was a pretty huge deal for the slaves as they believed that just like it led the three wise men in the bible, they would also be led to freedom eventually. It was their beacon of hope and what kept them going.

12. “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven”

Benjamin F. Powelson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When she managed to escape and tasted freedom for the first time, Tubman said that it felt like heaven for she had never before experienced anything like that. One can just imagine how exhilarating it must have been although it is quite sad to think that at the time, something as natural as freedom wasn’t even an option.

13. “There was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land”

Bohemian Baltimore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

After getting the freedom she desperately longed for, Tubman was faced with the difficulty of fitting in. She was a stranger there and this is what gave her the zeal to go back and free all those men, women, and children who were left behind. It gave her great purpose at a time when she could have felt lonely. She didn’t wallow in it. She decided this would be her purpose for as long as she was alive and wouldn’t look back.

14. “My home, after all, was down in Maryland, because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there.  But I was free, and they should be free”

Photographer unknown. Dated ca 1860s., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This was her attitude all along. She reasoned that it didn’t make sense that she was free yet many of her people were still enslaved and dying. It gave her the fire to go back without even thinking of the consequences. All she wanted was to see other black people free and not being treated like animals.

15. “I said to the Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to you, and I know you will see me through”

Photographer William H. Cheney, South Orange, NJ, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Again, her religious faith is what gave her the strength she needed to survive and not give up. Her courage came from trusting God and as said here, she decided she would hold on steady knowing that God would see her through. That in the long run, he wouldn’t abandon her. I can say that her faith worked so well because not only did she free enslaved people but also lived to see the day when slavery was abolished.

16. “..and I prayed to God to make me strong and able to fight, and that’s what I’ve always prayed for ever since”

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Tubman needed strength to hold on and to not give up no matter how difficult it could prove to be. The strength and courage she prayed for are why we celebrate this iconic and great woman today. Her courage changed the lives of hundreds of slaves. It gave them hope in the face of great hopelessness. Thanks to her strength, these enslaved men and women got to taste freedom.

17. “I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger”

various gov’t employees, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Even more admirable is that Tubman and others found a way of escaping without getting caught. They built an underground railroad that worked perfectly in escaping. It was really smart actually. As she proudly declared, she never lost even one passenger while at it and that is one thing she is always admired for. She was good at her job and the passion she had for her people made it all possible.

18. “God won’t let Master Lincoln beat the South until he does right thing”

Alexander Gardner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tubman believed that as long as slaves weren’t free, Lincoln would never be able to fight the war against the South. She therefore kept fighting and advocating for the freedom of black people.

19. “Master Lincoln, he’s a great man, and I’m a poor Negro but this Negro can tell Master Lincoln how to save money and young men”

Lindsley, Harvey B., 1842-1921, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Above everything else, Tubman was a very smart woman! As she proudly bragged, even though she was an illiterate and poor black woman, she could teach the president to save money and the young men at war who needed saving. Her experience gave her all the logistics she needed to maneuver and survive regardless of not having a formal education.

20. “My people are free!”

See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tubman strongly believed that there would come a time when black people would be free. Other black people felt like that was just a dream but she held on to this belief. Finally, Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in 1863 and every black woman, man, and child was declared free. Indeed her people were finally free and Tubman lived to see it as she had always hoped.