For Ben Ross, slavery was a choice.
On Sept. 17, 1849, Ben, his sister, Minty, and his brother, Henry, escaped from the forced labor camp where they were enslaved. They were free for weeks, when Ben came to a stunning realization:
He’d rather be a slave.
Ben had left his wife and kids behind when they escaped. How could he even enjoy freedom when the people he loved were still enslaved? Henry understood his brother’s dilemma, but they had also vowed never to split up the family. So Henry agreed to voluntarily subject himself to the most brutal institution ever created if Minty agreed. There was just one problem.
Minty had superpowers.
Everyone knew it. Some people say she got them from her mom. According to her brother, when she was 11 years old, the stars fell out of the sky. As everyone hid in the cabins and waited for the world to end, Minty walked outside. Present-day scientists dismiss her powers as a symptom of neocortical temporal lobe epilepsy from an incident a few days earlier. In any case, whether it was stardust or a simple head injury, everyone knew that she could “see” things. She could read minds and was born with the ability to make herself invisible and teleport herself. And of course, her master loved her super-strength.
She would sometimes warn people that their family members were about to be sold. That’s partly why the other enslaved people didn’t reveal the family’s escape. Even the enslaved people in the surrounding towns knew that Minty would eventually find out who crossed her. Because no one wanted to be on Minty’s bad side, their master didn’t realize they had run away until they had been gone for two weeks.
Ben convinced Henry that this was all Minty’s fault. If their sister didn’t have superpowers, he would’ve never let her hand over the money she was saving to a white lawyer after she claimed she had one of her “visions.” And if Minty hadn’t hired a white lawyer, she would’ve never found the will from their master’s deceased grandfather. That way, they would have never known that the will instructed his estate to set their mom and her children free. Sure, Minty’s discovery revealed that they had older brothers and sisters (which explained why their mother was always so worried that Minty, Ben and Henry would be “sold down the river”). But if Minty didn’t have those damn visions, she wouldn’t have killed their master.
She didn’t stab him or shoot him. But after she found out that they had been illegally enslaved, Ben and Henry heard her praying: “Oh Lord, if you ain’t never going to change that man’s heart, kill him.” And they knew what that meant…
Their master was dead a week later.
They only ran away after Minty had visions that the people who inherited them would break up their family. The fact that their niece, Kizzy, was sent to the slave auction confirmed that Minty was right. But if Minty hadn’t killed their master, they wouldn’t be in this predicament. So when you think about it, this was all Minty’s fault.
Henry was convinced. He and Ben dragged Minty back to the plantation and turned themselves in. Because of their powerful (and profitable) sister, they didn’t even get punished. But they knew Minty was fuming. And they knew she was going to escape again.
A week later, on Oct. 4, Minty was working in the field, singing with other enslaved people, when everyone fell quiet. The silence meant that Thompson, their brutal overseer, was near. But Minty didn’t care. She stepped in front of him and started singing louder:
“I'm sorry I’m going to leave you, Farewell, oh farewell But I’ll meet you in the morning, Farewell, oh Farewell I’ll meet you in the morning, I’m bound for the promised land On the other side of Jordan Bound for the promised land
Everyone knew it meant she was going to escape. Thompson knew she had just escaped, but he didn’t say anything. As she walked past him, Minty continued singing. When she went silent, Thompson turned around to see why she had stopped singing.
Minty had disappeared into thin air.
For some people, praying for someone’s death is evil. Others would say abandoning your family is wrong. But if convincing your slavemaster doesn’t matter and a legal document that freed you doesn’t matter, how do you get free? If you’ve literally tried everything, what are your other options?
Voting your way to freedom is theoretically possible. But because the total number of white people who are dedicated to white supremacy is greater than the total number of Black people in America, outvoting white people is practically and mathematically impossible.
In the theoretical cinematic universe, police won’t kill you if you just comply. In reality, it doesn’t matter. Sure, education and hard work are the paths to success. But that’s only true in a world where racial prejudice doesn’t exist. Plus, if Black people have to organize, strategize and outvote people just to attain equality, then equality does not exist. If you have to fight for freedom forever, then you are not free. How can you enjoy your individual freedom knowing that your brothers, sisters and countrymen are not free?
I can’t.
Neither could Harriet “Minty” Tubman.
She didn’t have superpowers.
She came back to free her family because she was a human.
Today’s Reading List:
A Judge Asked Harvard to Find Out Why So Many Black People Were In Prison. They Could Only Find 1 Answer: Systemic Racism by Michael Harriot
This secret form of voter suppression might be the civil rights issue of our time by Michael Harriot
The Place That Pushed Back Time by Michael Harriot
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