Recently I had the privilege of seeing the movie “Harriet.” It tells the story of one of the most famous African Americans in our nation’s history. Most people have heard of her as the heroic figure who escaped slavery and went on the lead many others to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Her courage and faith earned her the nickname “Moses.” The movie makes it clear that her faith in God was the foundation for both her own strength and her calling to lead others to freedom. The trailer for the movie is posted below, and I hope you have the chance to see the entire film. It was only in the last year that I learned that prior to the Civil War all of Harriet Tubman’s efforts to free enslaved people took place in Maryland. This reminded me that the horrors of slavery were not limited to the deep south or even to the states that seceded from the Union. Several border states as well as the District of Columbia continued to allow slavery even in the early days of the Civil War. Those who spoke up and worked for freedom and justice for all were not the majority then or at any time in our history. Yet Harriet Tubman is a powerful witness of what it means to have a deep faith in God and to follow God’s calling regardless of the overwhelming opposition she faced. In Cambridge, Maryland near where Harriet was born and enslaved, an artist painted an amazing mural that is both a tribute to the witness to Harriet Tubman and an invitation to “take her hand” and follow God’s call to freedom and justice for all. A picture of the mural is posted below. I invite you to reflect on that image as a way of both giving thanks for the witness of those who have gone before us in the struggle for justice and opening ourselves to the presence and call of God to be agents of justice in our time.
Harriet Tubman Mural by Michael Rosato in Cambridge, Maryland