Who Was Harriet Tubman A Hero

Martin Luther King Jr. once stated “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” (The King Center). In times of hardship, there are those who simply stand by and let others suffer, and there are those who go out of there way to help those in need. These people include Oskar Schindler, Angelina Jolie, Harriet Tubman, Hans Hubermann, and Paul Rusesabagina. Harriet Tubman was an African American slave from the time of her birth until 1849 when she escaped from her slavemaster. When she reached freedom in the North, instead of continuing on to get as far away as possible from her captors, she returned to the South in order to rescue over 300

Oskar Schindler was a German business man in German occupied Poland during WWII and the Holocaust. He was described as “...a cynical, greedy exploiter of slave workers...a black-marketeer, gambler, member of the Nazi party eternally on the lookout for profit, an alcoholic playboy and shameless womanizer…” (oskarschindler.com). However, as the he began to be exposed more and more to the horrors of the Holocaust, he devised a plan to save Jews from slavery and extermination. He built factories that Jews from concentration camps would come to live and work in, away from the prying eyes of the Nazi SS, where they would be fed, allowed to sleep, and be treated as human beings. He saved more than 1,000 “Schindler Jews” as they came to be called, from extermination. Oskar Schindler is now known as a hero, disproving the common theory that those who have not shown previous integrity and good choices cannot be heroes. In more recent times, Angelina Jolie, a former Hollywood actress who early in her life working in the movie industry was involved in several unethical incidents, “she even admitted to trying alcohol, suicide and drugs in an attempt to overcome her existential emptiness” (International Business Times). However, Jolie is now the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHRC) Special Envoy, focusing on large scale crisis’ resulting in mass

Paul Rusesabagina was the hotel manager at the Hotel des Mille Collines, a luxury hotel in Rwanda, during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. During the 100 day genocide “Rusesabagina sheltered more than 1,000 people inside his hotel. He gave them water from the pool so they wouldn't die from dehydration, smuggled in food so they wouldn't starve, and held off the militia who came to the hotel by bribing them with alcohol and cigars…” (NPR). However, over 800,00 people were killed in the genocide, so Rusesabagina in the grand scale of everything did not save a huge amount of people in proportion the the amount of people slaughtered, and many would say therefore his actions were insignificant. However, although Paul Rusesabagina did not save everyone single Tutsi from being killed, for those he did save, his acts of kindness were anything but insignificant. Likewise, Harriet Tubman was a black slave in Maryland who escaped in 1849. She “...made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom..” (PBS), during the American Civil War. She was similar to Rusesabagina in that there were almost 4 million slaves in captivity at this time period, and she did not help every person held in slavery escape to the North. However, for those she did help to escape, her acts are most likely the most significant thing anyone has ever done for them. Furthermore, Hans Hubermann,