The Tubman Suite

I've been inspired recently to decorate our guest bedroom in sort of Early American. I'm calling it the "Tubman Suite" in honor of Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, who was born on the eastern shores of Maryland. I need to add a few more pieces to make it more nostalgic. I feel like this is the perfect opportunity now that Hollywood is producing an HBO movie on the life of Harriet Tubman starring Viola Davis. I'm excited! Listen, if you have any ideas, please let me know. Well, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers who read MC. Enjoy your weekend. Peace~

Samuel Ringgold Ward

Maryland History

Samuel Ringgold Ward was born a slave in Maryland on October 17, 1817. In 1820, The Ward family escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad when Ward was around 3 years old. They eventually made it to New York where the young Samuel would attend school. Although he was too young to remember the brutality of Slavery, Samuel Ringgold Ward went on to become one of Slavery’s most eloquent orators. In 1839 Samuel became an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. His work also took him to Canada and Britain. Ward’s abolitionist work would continue throughout his life. He eventually retired in Jamaica where he died in 1866.

Sources: Wikipedia.org and Blackpast.org

John Fairfield: Freedom Blood

What is the first name that comes to mind when you think of The Underground Railroad? Harriet Tubman? Yes! This is exactly what the public school system taught many of us. History teachers rarely spoke of any other conductors in The Underground Railroad. Now, Mother Tubman will always be the beloved star of the Underground, but there were others who courageously led hundreds or maybe thousands of enslaved Africans to freedom. For instance, a white southerner by the name of John Fairfield would lead hundreds to freedom through The Underground Railroad in the 1850s. Now, there were many whites who assisted the emancipation of thousands of Africans in captivity, but John Fairfield was from a slave-holding family in Virginia. Fairfield would often use his family history to his advantage and pose as a slave holder or bounty hunter on his trips south.

Fairfield saw slavery as an evil institution and saw it first-hand as a youngster on the plantation in Virginia. He

saw husbands sold away from their wives and children sold away from their mothers. His goal during his 12 years as an Underground Railroad conductor was to unite loved ones who had been sold off. This was often profitable for white men who made a career in helping fugitives. Slaves would save money for years and give their life savings for freedom. Fairfield would often take their money. However, his ultimate goal was freedom. So, if they didn’t have money he would still ask them to join him.

John Fairfield would fight to the death to achieve freedom for the African in America and often made those he led to freedom pledge the same. He was not afraid to use the gun and often did so when it came to freedom for all. The receivers of his passionate bullets were often white and he had no remorse for those who stood in his way. He once told the Quaker abolitionist, Levi Coffin that “…Slaveholders are all devils, and it is no harm to kill the devil.” John Fairfield would go on to lead this often bloody quest for freedom until he himself was reportedly killed in the late 1850s during a slave revolt in Tennessee. This period in American history would mark the beginning of the Civil War (1861-1865). This would also mark one of the bloodiest of times in American history.

Note: The Undergound Railroad was a network of over 3,000 homes and other "stations" that assisted fugitive slaves in their quest for freedom

Sources: http://www.nationalcenter.org, http://www.freedomcenter.org, www.americaslibrary.gov and Wikipedia.org

Source and book on subject: The Creole Mutiny: A Tale of Revolt Aboard a Slave Shipby George Hendrick & Willene Hendrick (Author)