Abolitionists Harriet Tubman and John Brown together again

LAKE PLACID | In 1858 Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave, suffragette, abolitionist and militant underground railroad conductor met the militant abolitionist John Brown in St. Catharines, Ontario. She was born in 1820 (date disputed) with her original name of Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland and died on March 10, 1913, in Auburn, N.Y. Now she is staying at her friend's farmhouse in Lake Placid until Oct. 31, as a ribbon cutting of her sculpture occurred last Friday before some 90 persons. Democratic U.S. Sen. Kristin Gillibrand briefly addressed the crowd. Others also spoke, including an author who wrote a kid's book about Tubman and the High Peaks Bell Choir performed. The event was produced by John Brown Lives! of Westport, a nonprofit organization supporting human rights and social justice issues. The itinerant 2019 sculpture titled "Beacon of Hope" by Wesley Wofford depicts the hero walking on a piece of wood above a pile of shackles. One arm is stretching to touch a star high above and the other is reaching down with her palm open. One's initial, simple and probable interpretation of the art is that she is offering her assistance to someone seeking assistance to escape bondage. But when one reads a description of it by the artist, numerous additional meanings transpire. Wofford wrote the art "depicts the transformation of Tubman from her difficult origins to becoming a symbol of freedom and an American icon. She is a free woman reaching down with an encouraging hand to the viewer, and upon closer inspection, the viewer discovers a golden key in her hand. This 'generational key' inspires viewers to reach within themselves to unlock the inner strength to forge their own destiny just as Tubman did. The oxen yoke is a metaphor for the yoke of slavery and she crushes this broken obstacle to the point of snapping it. It also illustrates the legendary story of a young Arminta single-handedly steering a team of oxen for her father. The piled shackles and chains depict all of lives adversely affected by the scourge of slavery. The open shackles represent those freed by Tubman and others on the underground railroad, while the locked ones depict those not liberated until after the Civil War. The closed manacles also symbolize the unfinished work ahead of us essential to achieving a just and equitable future for all. While Tubman used the North Star to navigate out of bondage, she then became the compass to the thousands of enslaved who followed her guiding light to freedom. The Beacon of Hope is a monument that tells Harriet Tubman's story, so that all may learn from it; that amplifies her message of equality, so that all may hear it; and that chronicles her journey, with the hope that we all find the inspiration and the courage to walk in her footsteps." The John Brown Farm State Historic Site will also feature other Tubman events this year, including lectures by different historians about her and Brown on July 15 and Aug. 3, a one-woman artistic performance about Harriet on Sept. 12 and another for kids the next day. There will also be a celestial navigation workshop to demonstrate how Tubman used the night sky to guide her. The Monday, July 15 presentation features Brown biographer Louis DeCaro, Jr., who will shed light on the friendship and radical faith of Harriet Tubman and John Brown. Dr. DeCaro's talk will begin at 6 p.m. and is free and open to all. It will be held in the lower barn at John Brown Farm. For additional information on events at the historic farm, visit JohnBrownLives.org. You can also donate at the site to the nonprofit JohnBrownLives!. On June 1 and 2, 1863, Tubman led the Combahee Ferry raid, with the assistance of Union soldiers, in Beaufort and Colleton counties in South Carolina to free upwards of 700 slaves while being attacked by traitor Confederate soldiers. She also worked as a spy and did reconnaissance work to help prepare for the raid. Harriet Tubman said she assisted about 50 slaves (mostly her family members) to reach Canada on 13 forays into Maryland. Some put the figure higher. Following the Civil War Tubman settled in Auburn, New York and began taking in orphans and older adults, a practice that eventuated in the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes. During the war she was also a nurse for minimal pay. In 2028 the image of Harriet Tubman will replace that of slaveholder and progenitor of Jacksonian democracy, President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. At an 1896 suffrage convention in New York, Tubman said "I was the 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."

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Abolitionists Harriet Tubman and John Brown together again

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