March is Women's History Month

  Dere's two things I've got a right to,

and dese are, Death or Liberty — one or tother I 
mean to have. 

                              Harriet Tubman

I'm getting a late start this year but I'd rather be a little messy, than to have nothing at all.  So I'm going to start Women's History Month off with this book I found titled;

Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman by Sarah H. Bradford

 I will post the authors preface then link to a PDF version of the book and also an archchive containing several different applicable formats. The book is in the public domain so you may share it in any way you want to.  Listen here to this audio file about Harriet.

PREFACE

  It is proposed in this little book to give a plain

and unvarnished account of some scenes and adven-

tures in the life of a woman who, though one of

earth's lowly ones, and of dark-hued skin, has

shown an amount of heroism in her character rarely-

possessed by those of any station in life. Her name

(we say it advisedly and without exaggeration)

deserves to be handed down to posterity side by

side with the names of Joan of Arc, Grace Darling,

and Florence Nightingale ; for not one of these

women has shown more courage and power of en-

durance in facing danger and death to relieve hu-

man suffering, than has this woman in her heroic

and successful endeavors to reach and save all whom

she might of her oppressed and suffering race, and

to pilot them from the land of Bondage to the

promised land of Liberty. Well has she been call-

ed " Moses" for she has been a leader and deliverer

unto hundreds of her people.

2 PREFACE.

Worn down by her sufferings and fatigues, her

health permanently affected by the cruelties to

which she has been subjected, she is still laboring

to the utmost limit of her strength for the support

of her aged parents, and still also for her afflicted

people — by her own efforts supporting two schools

for Freedmen at the South, and supplying them

with clothes and books ; never obtruding herself,

never asking for charity, except for " her people."

It is for the purpose of aiding her in ministering

to the wants of her aged parents, and in the hope

of securing to them the little home which they are

in danger of losing from inability to pay the whole

amount due — which amount was partly paid when

our heroine left them to throw herself into the work

of aiding our suffering soldiers — that this little ac-

count, drawn from her by persevering endeavor, is

given to the friends of humanity.

The writer of this story has till very lately known

less personally of the subject of it, than many others

to whom she has for years been an object of inter-

est and care. But through relations and friends in

Auburn, and also through Mrs, Commodore Swift

of Geneva, and her sisters, who have for many years

known and esteemed this wonderful woman, she

has heard tales of her deeds of heroism which

PKEFACE. 3

seemed almost too strange for belief, and were in-

vested with the charm of romance.

During a sojourn of some months in the city of

Auburn, while the war was in progress, the writer

used to see occasionally in her Sunday-school class

the aged mother of Harriet, and also some of those

girls who had been brought from the South by this

remarkable woman. She also wrote letters for the

old people to commanding officers at the South, mak-

ing inquiries about Harriet, and received answers

telling of her untiring devotion to our wounded and

sick soldiers, and of her efficient aid in various ways

to the cause of the Union.

By the graphic pen of Mrs. Stowe, the incidents

of such a life as that of the subject of this little

memoir might be wrought up into a tale of thrilling

interest, equaling, if not exceeding, anything in her

world-renowned " Uncle Tom's Cabin ; " but the

story of Harriet Tubman needs not the drapery of

fiction ; the bare unadorned facts are enough to stir

the hearts of the friends of humanity, the friends of

liberty, the lovers of their country.

There are those who will sneer, there are those

who have already done so, at this quixotic attempt

to make a heroine of a black woman, and a slave ;

but it may possibly be that there are some natures,

4 PREFACE.

though concealed under fairer skins, who have not

the capacity to comprehend such general and self-

sacrificing devotion to the cause of others as that

here delineated, and therefore they resort to scorn

and ridicule, in order to throw discredit upon the

whole story.

Much has been left out which would have been

highly interesting, because of the impossibility of

substantiating by the testimony of others the truth

of Harriet's statements. But whenever it has been

possible to find those who were cognizant with the

facts stated, they have been corroborated in every

particular.

A few years hence and we seem to see a gather-

ing where the wrongs of earth will be righted, and

Justice, long delayed, will assert itself, and perform

its office. Then not a few of those who had

esteemed themselves the wise and noble of this

world, " will begin with shame to take the lowest

place ; " while upon Harriet's dark head a kind hand

will be placed, and in her ear a gentle voice will

sound, saying : " Friend ! come up higher ! "

S. H. B.

PDF Version here  requires an Acrobat Reader or Preview

Other formats Read Online, EPUB, Kindle, Daisy, Full Text, DjVu

This is a book to start Women's History Month off.