For the 17th year, the Village of Cassopolis took time to remember the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a prayer breakfast, community service, a freedom march to the historic Cass County Courthouse, prayers and a service at the Presbyterian Church.

At the prayer breakfast held at the Church of Cassopolis, the annual essay contest winner was announced.

This year’s winner was Otto Reick IV, who is a sixth grader from Sam Adams Elementary.

Reick’s essay was about Araminta Ross (above), who he called the true Harriet Tubman.

The essays were read during the Martin Luther King, Jr. program Monday night at the Presbyterian Church.

Following breakfast, there was a food pantry distribution at the Church of Cassopolis before a freedom march from the Cassopolis post office to the courthouse.

Upon arrival at the courthouse, marchers prayed.

The afternoon featured an open door youth gathering at the Church of Christ.

Keynote speaker was Pastor John Anderson of Powerhouse Outreach Ministries in South Bend.

 

The following is the text of the winning speech:

Araminta Ross, better known as Harriet Tubman is a well-known Underground Railroad Conductor. She was born in the year 1820 but because she was a slave the precise date is unknown.

“I grew up like a neglected  weed-ignorant of liberty, having no experience  of it.”

She was raised on Maryland’s Eastern Shore where the line between slavery and freedom were blurred. Families in this area often contain both  free and enslaved members. How confusing and unfair  that  must have been.

She married John Tubman in 1844. He was a free black man, her  status however remain the same, until she fled to Pennsylvania a free state in 1849.   John didn’t make the trip  and remarried after  her departure.

Harriet  would return to Maryland several times to recue to both family  and non- family member  from slavery. Her work was a constant  threat  to her own safety and freedom. Slave holders  put a bounty for her capture and the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was a real present danger.  Severe punishment was a certain to any one assisting a slave to escape.

Physical violence was a part of everyday live to a slave, and Harriet  had her fare share. She remembers when she was lashed 5 times before breakfast  one day. She carried those scars till her death.  The most severe happen one day she was sent to town for dry goods,she encountered a slave who had left the fields,the man over seer demanded  the Harriet  helped restrain him,she refused and he threw a 2 pound weight  and hit her in the head from then on she endured  seizures, severe headaches and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life.  In the late 1890 she underwent brain surgery at Boston Hospital for she was unable to sleep for the pain in her head. She refused to be put to sleep in fear that  was finally  a way to kill her, so she chewed on a bullet during surgery. She had seen the Civil War soldiers do this when their  limbs had to be amputated.

Tubman wore  many hats in her life,a  conductor of the Underground Railroad active proponent of women’s suffrage. She worked with Susan B Anthony,union Army as a cook, nurse,and even a spy. After  the war, she helped a biographer tell her life story.  In 1896 she was the keynote speaker at the very first meeting of the National Federation of Afro- American Woman. She helped organize the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. She spent her last years in a home Called “Harriet Tubman Home for aged and Indigent Negro” which she established in Auburn New York. She died March 10.1913 from pneumonia,she is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn N.Y. She receiver full Military Honors.

Those are all the facts of her life, but from my own personal views.  Harriet  was known as “MOSES” of her people, let’s think  about that. To me this make sense, because really all slave had was their  dreams of freedom, and their  belief in God. I’m sure she must have been like God to the 3000 slaves she help reach freedom. Harriett Tubman to me was also a hero for another reason. She stepped up and out when a woman (ANY WOMEN) HAD NO RIGHTS as Harriet  said “there was one of two  things I have a right to,liberty or death.  If I could not have one, I would have the other.”

To me there  will never be another hero like Harriet  Tubman for a women with very little education, and she done all she did.

I will have to say this, slaves had so much perseverance,most handle  daily beatings and mistreatment, and all they wanted was freedom how sad, don’t everyone deserve freedom. will end with a quote from  my Hero Harriet  Tubman

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.

 

— Otto Reick IV