5 Minute Reflection #14.05: Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

Harriet Tubman passed away 101 years ago today. We know that she was born between 1819 and 1825, but we don't know exactly when. Tubman herself didn't know. Having been born into slavery, she was a nobody. Of her own origins she said, "I grew up like a neglected weed - ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it."

Tubman escaped slavery and made at least nineteen missions to rescue more than 300 slaves through the network of abolitionists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She helped John Brown recruit men for the raid on Harpers Ferry.

During the American Civil War, Tubman was a cook and nurse for the Union Army, and later an armed scout and spy. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, guiding the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. 

In the post-war era Tubman worked with Susan B. Anthony in the struggle for women's suffrage. A lifelong Christian, Tubman was heavily involved with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Although she spent most of her life in poverty, going mostly unpaid for her service to others and with no meaningful compensation for her service to the Union Army, she eventually owned a parcel of land which she gave to the church in 1903 for a home for "aged and indigent colored people."

By the time of her death in 1913, she had become recognized as one of the greatest civilian leaders in American history with stature equal to names like Paul Revere and Betsy Ross. She was buried with full military honors in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

"I'm going to hold steady on you and you've got to see me through." - Harriet Tubman's Prayer