Harriet Tubman Still I Rise Summary

The horrors of the slave trade effectuated by European nations is the most heinous example of man’s inhuman treatment of other humans based on economics, a social construction of race and hypocritical religious beliefs. Our tour guide gave vivid descriptions of the slave trade, the conditions of capture, and the misnomer that the trade only took place on the western shores of the continent. While entering the area of the exhibit where the representation of the slave ship which held the enslaved Africans, the depiction of the slave being chained to a tree as punishment for trying to escape, were heart wrenching. I reflected upon the poem by Maya Angelou “Still I Rise,” that despite all of the horrendous experiences of slavery from the capture, imprisonment, torture, death, rape, beatings, starvation, and just unimaginable terror, the African American endured all and continued to advance in all levels of society. No chains, whips, slave ships, prisons,

Freedom was the primary goal of most of the enslaved and our class learned that no person personifies the quest for freedom more than Ms. Tubman, who made over 19 round trips from the south to the north. This was the establishment of “The Underground Railroad,” which had many “safe houses” and people of all races who assisted with delivering escaped slaves to travel to the northern states that had laws enacting the abolishment of enslavement. Mr. Jones discussed the Civil War and the real reasons that led to the conflict, as a military strategy as opposed to a battle exclusively to end slavery. African Americans have bravely fought in every war that this country has been involved in and have been the most important element that led to victory in those battles. Traveling through the annals of time continued as the tour progressed as the exhibits and the