In the early 1820s, Harriet Tubman was born a slave in a farm in Maryland, U.S. In those days, black people were treated worse than animals by white people and died in harness. Harriet desperately desired freedom since her childhood, bearing up day after day. In 1849, she finally got freedom with the help of “Underground Railroad.”1
1. A secret organization established to liberate American slaves in the 19th century. They called the escape route “railroad”; the houses of assistants who hid escaped slaves “stations”; and those who help them escape safely to the North “conductors,” using rail terminology.
She fled to the North where there was no slavery, and made some money by doing chores. It was a much more comfortable life than slavery. However, she secretly stepped on the southern land as soon as she saved money, putting aside her comfortable life. She voluntarily took on the role of a conductor of the Underground Railroad. Although she had to move secretly in danger, her only one desire was to help others free just as she got freed. During the Civil War, she even served as a northern spy. The total number of slaves she helped them escape was over a thousand.
She enabled those who were living with no hope and freedom to know the joy of liberation. She chose the most valuable thing she could do, and she was chosen as the new model of the most commonly used US $20 bill.