Now all of this fuss about slavery got lots of 
folks upset, and pretty soon a war broke out. 
One of the things in that war, was the 
situation of slavery. I saw lots of young men 
black and white, go to that war. I was surprised 
though, when one day, I got a funny request. 
They wanted me to go to work for the Union Army. 

Now I was no soldier, and I did have blackouts 
from time to time. That is because I was hit 
with an anvil when I was a little girl, and I 
got in the way of the overseer. He  was 
throwing that iron thing at another slave and 
it hit me in the head.  I still have blackouts 
from that anvil hitting me in the head.  So I 
knew I wasn't going to be a soldier. But what 
did they want with me?

Well, they heard that I was pretty good with 
traveling over the land, and that I was good 
at reading tracks.  So I said I would try once 
again to help my people. I went down to a place 
in South Carolina called Fort Wagner.  

When I was there I helped get together a group 
of 9 scouts. After they were ready, I led a 
raiding party. We got to 3 gunboats, up the 
Combahee river.  After that raid, we freed 800 
slaves!!!! They were so happy that they were
free!!!! They cried, and they sang songs of 
freedom!!!! They wrote about me in the Boston 
Commonwealth newspaper after that. That was 
the summer of 1863.

I was sad later to see some of those same soldiers 
that freed those people die a few days later, but 
I am blessed that I saw so many of our people
free!!! 

I am now an old lady living here in Auburn New York. 
I am proud of my work on the Underground Railroad. 
I was happy to save my parents, and save my people. 
On that railroad, I am happy to say that I never run 
my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.

Thank you for listening to my stories.