Memory of a Woman, Harriet Tubman

Wednesday, August 22, 2012 0 comments


by Mirvaldy B. Joseph

(To all Brave Haitian Women of our Community.)

For as long as we can remember, Black History has been an incongruous division of the American culture. As early as during 18th century, many have fought to eradicate Slavery and create a society where blacks and whites – men or women can enjoy the same privileges under the same laws.   This episode of the American History is one of the most contentious, and has given birth to some figures that helped shape and inspired most of the struggles for freedom in our world today.   


I invite you to remember Harriet Tubman.

She was a freed slave who was born in Maryland in 1825 but lived in Auburn, New York.  She believed in freedom, equality and racial justice for the American Society.  
Even as she approached the complex age of eighty, she would go to the South again and again to extend a helping hand to other black slaves, eager to escape through the Underground Railroad.  Early on, she understood that helping others to escape was not enough for true freedom. She bought some property in her own neighborhood to maintain an informal shelter and help these former slave families survive.


Around the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century, she understood the evolution of her society since the abolition of Slavery, but thought that it remained so much to guarantee a really free society.  Until her death in 1913, she never gave up the fight.

Most of the Youth of today probably do not know who Harriet Tubman was. She was a liberator, a “WOMAN” who stood against the enslavement machine in her Country, one of those citizens to whom many generations owe the taste of freedom in this Great Nation, the United States of America. 

In Haiti, if we want to struggle for a genuine change, we cannot undertake this endeavor with just one generation or with one category of citizens.  We need men and women of every age and from every ethnic background to help out; any Haitian who can feel in his/her heart the cry for help of our great country must have his/her own score to play in the symphony of Sacrifice, Dream and Hope of this Freedom Orchestra. 

May the spirit of this great woman, be our inspiration.


Mirvaldy B. Joseph

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