HELPING
SLAVES TO FREEDOM

Topics: Courage; Freedom; Rescue; Risk

References: Joshua 1:9; Philippians 4:13

After Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849, she immediately became involved in the abolitionist movement, organizing meetings and speaking against slavery. But that wasn’t enough; she returned to the South to help other slaves find freedom. If she had been caught, she would have been thrown back into slavery or killed as an example to other runaways.

Tubman returned to the South nineteen times to rescue some three hundred fellow slaves. Each trip became riskier as slave catchers became more aware of her. But each time with God’s help, she said, she evaded the authorities.

—Matt Donnelly, “Black Moses: The Mystical Faith and No-Nonsense Tactics of the Underground Railroad,” Christian History and Biography (April 1, 1999)