Do you remember us talking about the underground railroad? I believe that the numbers of runaways was very inflated. I think it came to just several hundred instead of the thousands if I remember right.
Quotes of Harriet Tubman
"I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." or "If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more."
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"Because her rescue missions were fraught with danger, Tubman demanded strict obedience from her fugitives. A slave who returned to his master would likely be forced to reveal information that would compromise her mission. If a slave wanted to quit in the midst of a rescue, Tubman would hold a revolver to his head and ask him to reconsider.
Asked whether she would actually kill a reluctant escapee, she replied, "Yes, if he was weak enough to give out, he'd be weak enough to betray us all and all who had helped us, and do you think I'd let so many die just for one coward man?"
She never had to shoot any slave she helped, but she did come close with one: "I told the boys to get their guns ready, and shoot him. They'd have done it in a minute; but when he heard that, he jumped right up and went on as well as anybody."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/special/131christians/tubman.html
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David Upton