Aunt Polly Jackson was a middle-aged free Black woman who didn’t settle just for her own freedom. She used the same system that freed her to become a fierce abolitionist.
Aunt Polly Jackson escaped through the Underground Railroad. She found a new home in a town called Africa near Ripley, Ohio made up of other escapees.
Anti-abolitionists established the reverse underground railroad where free people were kidnapped and reenslaved. But Jackson wouldn’t stand for it.
Jackson disguised herself as an old and feeble lady. The anti-abolitionists wanted younger victims so they often disregarded Jackson. Armed with a butcher knife and a kettle of boiling water, she surprised the slave catchers and attacked them, protecting the newly- escaped along the road.
Jackson couldn’t stand by when other’s freedoms were threatened. How can we ensure liberation for others even when we reach our personal liberation goals?