Histor Tubman-Madison

Harriet Tubman was born between 1819 and 1820 near Buck town in Maryland. The actual date that she was born is not well known since her parents were slaves and there were no proper records that were kept for children that were born by slaves. Despite her being born and brought up in slavery, she was called by many Moses for leading majority of them out of bondage all the way to freedom. Her parents were slaves on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The family that she was born in was a large one and her parents came from Africa. During the American Civil war, she was an abolitionist, a humanitarian, an integral part of the Underground Railroad, a spy and also a nurse during that period. As she grew up, she passed a lot of challenges since she was born a slave and brought up as a slave meaning that she had no freedom. One of the challenges that she passed through was child labor. At an age of between five and six years, she was loaned out to a different plantation despite that some of her siblings were sold out of the state buyer. In this plantation, she was given the mandate of working in checking muskrat traps that were located in a river. As she continued working here, she became too sick to work and therefore she was returned. At this time she had been malnourished and she was suffering due to excessive exposure to coldness. She was later lent to a different plantation after she recovered from this illness and in this plantation; she was working as a nursemaid to the child of the planter. During her teenage stage, she also worked as a field hand, hauling and plowing wood. All these were difficult jobs for someone who was of a tender age like her and this is considered to be child labor. At this period also, she was able to defend her fellow field hand who had tried to escape from the plantation. She faced the angry overseer who threw a two-pound weight at the field hand which then fell short and hit her in the head which caused a long-life headaches, narcolepsey and seizures to her. These were mistreatments that she faced since she was a slave who was seen to have no rights to fight for her. The marriage family that she had was also a problem since it was not stable and had no peace. Back in 1844, she married John Tubman who was a freeman but she still had to continue working for herself so as to sustain herself. After the death of their master back in 1849, she together with her two brothers ran away from the plantation that they were working as slaves. Her husband did not permit her to escape. Later, her brothers had a second thought and decided to go back to the plantation leaving her alone. She had no plan of going back but escaping completely from Maryland. After this, she left on her own on foot where she had to travel at night only for the sake of ensuring that she was secure and no one could know the route that she had followed. She used the North Star to travel during night and she also get instruction from helpers who were in the Underground Railroad and she was able to travel for a distance of 90 miles all the way to Pennsylvania. Marriage breakage; while she left for Pennsylvania, her husband John married another wife who was a free woman. After she had lived in the exile for a period of two years, she decided to go back and rescue any other slave who was willing to risk escaping together with her family. On her arrival at Maryland, she was shocked to find that her husband had already married another wife after she had left for her safety. She faced many challenges. Later after she was now completely free she had to marry up another husband which was a major challenge to her. Despite all these challenges that she passed through, she continue fighting for those who had been enslaved till they were set free. A good example of this is seen after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 where she went to Canada where she made many slaves free. On the other hand, James Madison was born back in March 15th 1751. He was raised up in a plantation in sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, just the same way that Harriet did despite that he was not a slave. His father was rich from inheritance of wealth from his father together with marrying a daughter who belonged to a tobacco merchant and this also added his wealthy. James Madison was a sickly child who never came out of his mother's sides during her child age, the same way that Harriet served several sicknesses during her early stages. The main different that existed between this two protagonists is that James was born in a freeman family that was also very wealthy, while Harriet was born in a poor slaved family where there was no freedom at all. One of the great differences between the lives of the two protagonists is that James was brought up in a stable family where she was also able to get adequate education that helped her in the future to become a U.S president. He was recognized as the father of the American constitution. On the other hand, Harriet was born in an enslaved family where she had no chance to study since she faced child labor by working in the plantations. As she participated in setting her fellow slaves for freedom, James played a vital role in ensuring that America had their own constitution and he was able to be called the father of constitution, as Harriet was called Moses for enabling majority of the slaves to escape. James played an important role in drafting some of the human rights that were included in the constitution later. The only difficulties that james passed through in his childhood was fear of being attacked by Indians during the French and Indian war of 1754 – 1763. On the other side, Harriet passed through many difficulties including breaking up from her marriage and escaping away into an exile while she ended up breaking her marriage with John, who married a free woman after she had left. As Harriet passed through some health sufferings in her tend age, James also passed through the same. He suffered from psychosomatic which is said to be a stress-induced illness, epileptic fits which is also similar to seizures, a similar disease that Harriet also suffered from and this plagued him on and off throughout his youth stage. After he returned back to Virginia back in 1772, he found himself caught up in tension between the colonist and the British authorities. This was also some of the challenges that he passed through. This can be seen to be similar to the one that Harriet passed through when she treated to defend one of her fellow slaves who had tried to escape from the plantation that led to her obtaining some severe injuries that caused her to obtain severe injuries which led to prolonged headaches. Despite this, the difficult that the two protagonists passed through were totally different. James found himself in trouble while fighting to get into power while Harriet found herself in trouble while fighting to set her free from slavery. These two situations are totally different from each other. Despite this, the two ended up being success. One of the major achievements between the two protagonists is that their fight influenced the society positively. Harriet fought for her fellow slaves to be set free while James for the Americans to have their first constitution that valued human values. Both achieved this with Harriet earning herself the name Moses for enabling many of slaves to escape for their freedom while James was renamed the father of constitution for ensuring that America got a new constitution. He also became the fourth American president. Also, Harriet played a key role in the invention of the railroad conductor. She also should to be very courageous by walking at night while using a star to guide her throughout her walk to the new state where she was able to get freedom and lived a better life.

Cite this page