Cloey Herring

Claire Brooks, my mother, was born on July 3rd, 1983, in Bolton England. She came to America on March 18, 1993 to Davie, Florida. She got her green card to legally live here. Now, she lives in Baltimore, Maryland and still to this day doesn't have citizenship. She's not very involved in politics, mostly because she's not legally allowed to vote, but even if she could vote, she wouldn't get involved in the politics. Personally, she thinks that the people who talk about politics and are all about it are very aggressive and it's just not a good topic to talk about. My grandmother is also from England and she also doesn't have the right to vote because she doesn't have interest in getting or paying for her American citizenship. My mom is looking to get her citizenship when her green card is ready to be renewed because it would cost a lot less over time. Both my grandmother and my mother think it should be a lot easier to get your citizenship and a lot less expensive. 

My mother and my grandmother weren't over in the United States until 1993, so they weren't living through a time where women couldn't vote. In England, the voting rights for woman were created in 1928, meaning neither my mom nor grandma had to fight for the right to vote. My mom moved away from England before she hit the age to vote for anything. In England they have a queen and king so there's no voting for presidents or anything like that, but my grandmother could still vote for certain issues.

People have a lot of trouble taking the citizenship test because a lot of people can't be educated properly for it If they're coming from another country. A lot of the time when people come from other countries it’s often to come and work. If they would also like to vote, then the visa is not going to allow for that. They most likely aren't going to have the amount of money needed to pay for it because they are looking for work. The government should change the requirements to make it a lot easier for people wanting to vote or become a citizen.

Harriet Tubman was enslaved at birth. She was a slave from 1820-1849 in Dorchester Maryland, until she escaped to freedom. She then became a “conductor ” for the Underground Railroad. She helped free hundreds of enslaved families with what’s known as the Underground Railroad. She risked her life to bring enslaved families to the safe houses. Safe houses are secret network of places for the slaves to escape to and hide out. Harriet tubman was a spy in the American Civil War. She helped out the Union during this time. When her duty as a spy ended, she dedicated her life to helping slaves that were in poverty. She also helped the elders in her community. After she was finished with all of her missions, she assisted John Brown get men for his raid on Harpers Ferry. She later became an activist for woman's suffrage.

Two years after Tubman was born, the state of Rhode Island took away the right to vote for African Americans. In 1832, when Harriet was only 12, Maria Stewart started to fight for rights for African Americans such as racial equality. Around the same time colleges started accepting African Americans and women. Also a society of people against female slavery was founded. Things are finally starting to be done for enslaved men and women in the 1830s. Many advocates for antislavery were popping up around Maryland giving speeches, attending conventions, and writing letters. The right to vote for women was permitted at a anti slavery convention in 1839. 

A worldwide convention advocating for anti slavery was held in 1840 but women were not allowed. The women who were for women's rights decided to hold their own convention in 1848. This was around the same time that Harriet escaped and helped free over 300 slaves. A woman named Mary Shadd decided to escape slavery and go to Canada so she could get away from slavery itself and the laws that follow it. 

In 1857 Supreme Court was able to rule against African Americans being American citizens. Slavery was abolished in Washington DC in 1862. Within the next year the emancipation proclamation was endorsed and any enslaved people under control of the Union were now free. 1865 was a big year for slaves because the 13th Amendment was passed. The 13th Amendment is the abolishment of slavery and the act of involuntary servitude. Slaves were not free in the United States. When the 14th Amendment was constituted in 1868 African American women were furious. The 14th Amendment granted the right for African American men to vote but still prohibited African American woman to do so. The 15th Amendment was constituted in 1870 meaning that anybody (excluding women) had the right to vote regarding of race or if they were slave previously. This didn't really fix anything for women who wanted the right to vote. In 1875 the Civil Rights Act was passed to prohibit discrimination in public accommodations. In 1893 an African Methodist Episcopal church founded the Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society. In 1913 Harriet Tubman died and the right to vote wasn't granted to African-American women until 1920 when the 19th Amendment was constituted. Unfortunately Harriet Tubman didn't live to see the right get granted.

All the hardship these women went through to get there rights and to get treated equally made them way stronger in the long run. If they weren't so committed to get things like freedom, equality, and rights then we wouldn't be where we are today and we could've still had slavery. Those people that escaped could've never gotten their freedom if it wasn't for Harriet Tubman. If Harriet Tubman wasn't African American or a woman, then Her life would be completely opposite. She would've never been a slave and she could've been a privileged house and right owner. She took risks because of her past experiences. She saw how it felt to be treated like nothing and she didn't want other people to have those same feelings. Harriet Tubman sacrificed her freedom and possibly her life for the slave and women who had no rights. Many woman and African Americans can thank harriet Tubman for what she did during her lifetime.

After researching Harriet Tubman and my mother and grandmother, I’ve realized how different people’s opinions on voting could be. For my mother and grandmother, voting and human rights isn’t something that they really think about. But with Harriet Tubman, she really cared about her rights. Most people in today’s society don’t realize how hard these women fought to have these rights and they take them for granted most the time. Woman are still fighting today for rights such as the new issue of having the right to get an abortion in some states. It’s amazing what Harriet Tubman did to get her rights. She even sacrificed her freedom and life for other people who were in a situation like herself.

It’s very important to vote in all levels of government because if you don’t, you’re basically just wasting the sacrifices these women made to get to this point. Nowadays when people aren’t given the choice to vote for things, they get mad but when they do get to vote, they don’t do it and then get mad at the results if it’s something they don’t agree with. When you vote in any level of government, you are able to say that you got to take part in the decision that was made. If you didn’t help, when people higher up make their choices, they wouldn’t be doing something that most people would agree with. I will now try to encourage myself, my mother, and my grandmother to use their rights because these women worked so hard to get them.