Harriet Tubman Spiritual Life Lessons

Harriet Tubman Spiritual Life Lessons

 By Cassandra George Sturges

In Harriet Tubman’s biography she talked about how every night she would pray to God to stop her master from beating her. But she said that it seemed like the more she prayed the more her master would beat her.  

She decided that God was inside of her, and that He would only do the things for her that she could not do for herself so she decided to plan an escape from slavery. 

Secondly, she told herself that she would no longer think of herself as a slave, because she believed that her thoughts would create her reality. She said that in order to be a free person she had to think of herself as a free person.

Harriet Tubman’s first two attempts to escape slavery failed because she decided to bring her family along who changed their minds at the last minute or told others who blew their cover. On her third attempt to freedom, she told absolutely no one and put on a disguise as a crazy old man and successfully escaped the plantation.

Harriet Tubman became my first academic mentor even though she couldn’t read or write. Here is an academically illiterate woman who couldn’t read her own Wanted Dead or Alive signs who found her way to freedom—because she embraced the God of Action inside of her.


But this is not why I love her. I love Harriet Tubman because after finding her own way to freedom she came back and led over 300 slaves to freedom. I feel like if I had been Harriet Tubman, I would have been traumatized by the cold dirty rivers, the bugs, and the dogs chasing me. I think I would have become an alcoholic telling my story of horror-- of how I escaped to freedom to anyone who would listen.

Harriet Tubman reached out to me at Henry Ford Community College’s library and taught me 4 important lessons that weren’t in the textbook or in the classroom:

The first lesson that I learned is that I needed to truly put forth a real effort and try as hard as I could before God would step in. God would meet me at the library, He would meet me in the classroom—but he wouldn’t drag me there. God would help me to understand any subject matter but only after I had fallen asleep at the dining room table after burning the midnight oil. I learned that I must do everything within my own power that is humanly possible before God will step in to help me.


The second lesson that I learned from Harriet Tubman is that it is essential to define myself for myself. My thoughts about myself would project to the world how I should be treated. She had to think of herself as a free person before she could attract opportunities and the right people into her life to see her as she saw herself.  Whatever you truly believe about yourself will be manifested in your life- the world doesn’t argue with you. The world will just give you opportunities to validate your truth. 


The third lesson that I learned from Harriet Tubman is what I call the Back Door Method. Harriet Tubman did not walk up to her master and say, “You know what I am really not into this slavery thing, so I will be leaving. Thank you so much for listening, Master Sir.” And then proceed to walk away. No Harriet Tubman took the spiritual back door. The front door of your dreams typically has a beaten path. 

The guards of the door have been appointed by society and they decide whether or not you are the right color, age, or gender for the job. They keep the people out that they don’t want to come in. But the back door is only guarded by the God inside of you. If you can’t get into Harvard, Yale, or the University of Michigan, you get into a college that will accept you. Two plus two is four around the world.


Be clear about what it is that you truly want out of life. Is your dream to go to the University of Michigan or to be an educated person? If your dream is to be on the campus of the University of Michigan you could achieve this goal by mopping their floors and cleaning their rest rooms. If your goal is to obtain your bachelor’s degree go to the school that will accept you, excel academically and I promise you that your dreams will come true.


I have always asked myself is there another way to achieve my goal, is there a back door that I am overlooking that will take me exactly where I want to go.


Harriet Tubman’s 4^th lesson to me was when you have something important to do in your life many times you must go alone. When I first started school, I wanted my friends to come too, but we would sit and chat and before I knew it—time had passed and I had accomplished nothing.  In the beginning, if there was a big test coming up, my friends would unintentionally find the perfect distraction. I wanted them to come with me, and they wanted me to stay behind with them.


We come into this world by ourselves and we leave this world by ourselves. I learned that when I have something important and life changing to do, you must start this journey alone.