World Narcolepsy Day – Dreaming about a Bright Future is what I wrote on my project_sleep cloud.
As you know, I started this blog in an effort to help raise awareness for World Narcolepsy Day. I have also written a song ( released on the 22nd of September, 2022) about Harriet Tubman, an American abolitionist and political activist who achieved great things despite having secondary narcolepsy. Dream Big, Keep Going, Believe in Yourself!
The Underground Railroad Conductor Harriet Tubman
Harriet was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage.
Born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another enslaved person, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. These experiences, combined with her Methodist upbringing, led her to become devoutly religious.
In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other enslaved people to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy, Tubman (or “Moses”, as she was called) “never lost a passenger”.
After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide fugitives farther north into British North America (Canada), and helped newly freed enslaved people to find work. Tubman met John Brown in 1858, and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.
When the Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 enslaved people. After the war, she retired to the family home on property she had purchased in 1859 in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents. She was active in the women’s suffrage movement until illness overtook her, and she had to be admitted to a home for elderly African Americans that she had helped to establish years earlier. After her death in 1913, she became an icon of courage and freedom.
I found a fabulous movie online this week about Harriet if anyone is interested in watching called ‘Harriet Tubman and The Underground Railroad’ it is starring Ruby Dee as Harriet, it was made in 1964 and in my opinion is far better than the more recent video released called ‘Harriet’.
Here is the YouTube link to the movie https://youtu.be/-7J-yWP1f7w, let me know what you think if you do watch it, and remember to subscribe and keep your eye out for updates about my soon to be released song!
