“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.”
Cope, Stephen (2012-09-25). The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling (p. 231). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
A woman. Of color. Who was someone else’s property. Who was illiterate. With debilitating migraines and seizures throughout life due to a head wound received as a child. I went to go see her world close up.
In late 1850, after a number of months of freedom in Philadelphia, Harriet got word from Maryland that her niece, Kizzy, was about to be “sold downriver” into the Deep South— precisely the way Tubman’s sister had been many years before. This was a fork in the road for Harriet. She decided that she must put her own freedom on the line to help rescue her niece. She must go back into Maryland— a slave state where she herself was wanted as a fugitive— to help with the rescue.
Cope, Stephen (2012-09-25). The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling (p. 220). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The Underground Railroad Visitor Center is opening in March, 2017. It will be worth a visit.
She always remembered her refrain on the Underground Railroad: “If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going.”
Cope, Stephen (2012-09-25). The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling (p. 231). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Photos below. Click here to see them on Flickr.com. The bottom photo is a 360-virtual reality shot. Click here to see it in 360.