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I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say: I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.

Harriet Tubman, 1896

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Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in Maryland in 1849 and went back about 13 times and led some 70 people north. The Underground Railroad was a secret network of routes and safe houses for people escaping slavery; its guides were called conductors. In the Civil War she guided a Union raid on the Combahee River in 1863 that freed more than 700 people. The line is usually dated to a women's suffrage meeting in 1896 and survives through those who heard her. No one she guided is known to have been caught.

Türkçe oku
Sekiz yıl Yeraltı Demiryolu'nun kondüktörlüğünü yaptım ve çoğu kondüktörün söyleyemeyeceği bir şeyi söyleyebilirim: Trenimi hiç raydan çıkarmadım, tek bir yolcumu bile kaybetmedim.
Harriet Tubman, 1896

Harriet Tubman 1849'da Maryland'de kölelikten kaçtı; sonra Güney'e 13 kez kadar geri dönerek 70 kadar insanı kuzeye, özgürlüğe götürdü. Yeraltı Demiryolu, köleleştirilmiş insanların özgürlüğe ulaşmasına yardım eden gizli yollar ve sığınak evlerden oluşan bir ağdı; yol gösterenlerine de kondüktör denirdi. İç Savaş sırasında da Birlik ordusunun 1863'te Combahee Nehri'ne düzenlediği ve 700'ü aşkın insanı özgür bırakan baskına yol gösterdi. Bu söz genellikle 1896'daki bir kadın oy hakkı toplantısına tarihlenir ve onu dinleyenlerin aktarımıyla bize ulaşmıştır. Yol gösterdiği insanlardan yakalanan olduğu bilinmiyor.

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Background reading: Harriet Tubman
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