My Human Rights Script

Characters involved: Harriet Tubman, Narrator, “Miss Susan”, Shop Keeper Dave, Chief Boss X (a runaway slave), Harriet’s Mother, Joseph (Harriet’s Brother), Doctor Steve, Eric Young and Francis Bague (Slave drivers), and George Bates (Friend of the families).

Nar.: Today on Slave Stories, we will be discussing one of Harriet Tubman’s most famous stories. Please tell our audience about your great feat.

Harriet: Well Jeb, I was only 11 at the time, back in 1833, and I had just finished tending to Miss Susan, one of my owners. I was cleaning the dishes and looking after my little brother when Mr. Hastings came into the room. Mr. Hastings was the husband of Miss Susan. He came in the room like a superior king, and told me to quickly run to the store for some dry goods like cloth or flour. I quickly obeyed him and ran out of the room and was on my way to the store. It took my about a 15 minute walk to get there.

Nar.: Really, it must have been blocks from where “the Big House” was.

Harriet: Yes it was. I believe it was almost 5 miles from “the Big House” because there was a large neighborhood with about 18 houses, each with about 7 acres of land. Some Houses had even 11 or even 12 acres of land. The store was painted white and had dark green shudders. The store had 2 stories, the first was for the store and the second was for the owner. When I entered I didn’t see the shop keeper anywhere, but I did see one of the slaves he owned. I greeted him got into a conversation with him. I found out that his name was Chief Boss X. Anyways, I was talking to him very nicely taking my time there finding all the goods I needed. I walked to the counter and dropped all the items I needed onto it. While the shop keeper was ringing me up, Chief came up next to me and started talking again. The shop keeper eyed him and then told him to get back to work or he’d give him 16 lashes. With that he jogged over to a bunch of wooden crates, which looked like could hold a tiger inside and started stacking them. He was also opening them if they had a red “X” on them then he would restock the shop’s wares. Finally when the shopkeeper was bent over for a split second, placing my things in a “the Big House’s” wagon Mr. Hastings told me to bring on my way out, he dashed to the door. When the shopkeeper stood back up again, the slave was already at the door.
“Stop that Slave!!!” shouted the shopkeeper, but it was too late the other slaves around just looked blankly at him while he jerked open the door. He finally shouted at me to go catch him so I took 4 strides toward him from pure fear, but I stopped about 10 feet away from him. By now he was in the door way, ready to run and be free. What happened next was a blur to me and I only know what happened because my mother explained it to me. Apparently the shop keeper jumped over the counter and threw a 2lb weight at the slave but it dropped short and hit me. I was then knocked out and bleeding from the head. When I got home I was set on my bed with my mother tending to me. It was 2 days until any type of doctor came to see me and look at my wound. After the doctor saw me, I was forced to work in the fields with sweat and blood dripping slowly down my face and getting into my eyes. Finally after many long and painful weeks I recovered, and just barely grasping life.

Nar.: That is a truly amazing story, Harriet. How did you recover from such a wound?

Harriet: Well, I am a very serious Christian and all I did with my mother and my family was constantly pray and read the Bible. I believe that God healed me for a reason and I found out that, that reason is helping save slaves and give them freedom.

Nar.: Thank you for your wonderful story, Harriet, and that concludes today’s episode of Slave Stories. Thank you fore listening and tune in next time to hear about Nat Turners Story.