She Defied Injustice
Oppression and persecution show up repeatedly throughout history. In this country, one of the most glaring examples was slavery. Many of our ancestors fought and sacrificed to defend and protect the freedoms and rights that we have today.
The Underground Railroad offered the chance of freedom for thousands fleeing from oppression. It was a web of secret routes with safe houses along the way to help African Americans in the south escape to freedom in the north, and Canada. The route was over a thousand miles long, some estimate three thousand, and often there were ten to twenty miles between safe houses.
It was a form of civil disobedience that began in the 17th century and continued until the mid-19th century.
Travelers utilized natural and man-made routes, such as rivers, canals, bays, and numerous woodland trails. Freed slaves and abolitionists sacrificed their own safety and well being to assist enslaved people find freedom. Slave owners and plantation owners fought back with vehemence, wanting to recapture their slaves, who were responsible for their prosperity.
There was much brutality and terror as agents, attempting to prevent slaves from reaching freedom ,unleashed dogs, and used extreme physical punishment on those they caught, sometimes killing them. They were property belonging to the owners. Escaping slavery was a near impossible task and many took up arms to protect themselves.
Our casual study of history has revealed some of the Underground Railroad heroines. But others remain unknown. One of these was a freed slave by the name of “Aunt Polly” or Polly Jackson.
We know very little about Polly’s early life, but she emerged in middle age and made a name for herself by showing enormous courage and grit while fighting off agents trying to capture freedom seekers. Polly herself had escaped to freedom via the Underground Railroad following the Ohio River. She settled in Africa, Ohio, in a community comprised of other African Americans who were offered land to settle in the town, a town on the Underground Railroad route. Polly began a small farm and became self sufficient. She always helped other freedom seekers who crossed her property on the way north to freedom.
The attacks on freedom seekers became more and more brutal and this enraged Polly Jackson! She Her actions as an advocacy for these seeking freedom became an even stronger. She was fierce. She dressed up as a weak and very old woman, thinking that older people were usually unnoticed. Polly journeyed out under the cover of darkness carrying a butcher's knife, wrapped in her skirts, and a kettle of boiling water. This diminutive woman fought off the adult white male slave catchers with these weapons and her bare hands. After dispatching with the agents, Polly hosted the fugitives in her home and helped them with directions and provisions as they continued their journey. Soon, her reputation was widespread, and similar attacks on white enslavers commenced along the Underground Railroad route.
Because of strong and brave women like Polly Jackson, and many others - because of them - We Can!
Forgive the plug for the book, although it really does look good, I thought this story and visuals were a nice way to compliment the saga of Miss Polly Jackson.
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