Harriet and The Promised Land

It doesn't look like much, this stretch of Geneva Street in central St. Catharines.

Down-at-the-heel, seedy remnant of better times would be a more apt

description.

But from 1850 to the end of the American Civil War it was a Paradise.

Slavery was abolished in Canada in 1834 and any slaves who made it to the border were given citizenship and protection under the law.

This is where they came.

This was The Promised Land.

Harriet Tubman made St. Catharines her secret headquarters for the Underground Rail Road after the American Congress passed a law in 1850 that forced Northerners to capture and return fugitive slaves.

She risked her life time and time again bringing blacks to Canada.

Last Thursday night I went to the British Methodist Episcopal Church,

the church that Harriet Tubman attended, to hear Dr. Kate Larson of Boston speak about Mrs. Tubman's life.

Evidently Harriet Tubman sat in the back pew,

a tiny woman who could neither read nor write.

But Harriet Tubman was a historical giant and the church was packed to hear what Dr. Larson had to say.

I have to tell you it isn't easy to sit and listen and accept the inhumanity of those times.

And Canadians cannot be smug.

The ex-slaves faced terrible discrimination after they arrived. 

The only difference being that here they were free.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Harriet Tubman.

I think she would be pleased at how things have changed.

But I think she would also tell us to be vigilant.

Dinner for Six, A Challenge

A dinner party?


For six?



It is a challenge making its way through the blogisphere these days.


List six people with whom you would like to share a meal and include the menu.





Hmmm.


I didn't think I was interested in blogging that topic at first but the longer it rolled around in my head the more I wondered if I could come up with six. 

Believe me, the possible guest list was stupendously long, it was the narrowing down that was difficult.


I decided I wanted a mixture of past, present, men, women,  good,  bad and questionably human.



Here is the mélange of dinner guests that I chose:















1. Molly Brant (Konwatsi' tsiaienni)

Leader of the Iroquois clan matrons at the time of the American War of Independence, she was also a business woman, a mother of eight, and a Loyalist who brought her people to Canada.

She will sit on my right.

The place of honour.
















2. Osama Bin Laden

Hard to imagine what he will be like as a dinner guest.

I would like to hear him defend his treatment of women.

He will sit next to Molly Brant, the woman who was trained to lead from an early age and could control a thousand angry warriors.
















3. Harriet Tubman

The former slave who risked her life and led so many blacks along the underground railroad to Canada will sit between Rick Mercer and Osama bin Laden.

I think she and Rick will have a great time, not so sure how she will take to bin Laden, the man who treats women as slaves.


















4. Rick Mercer

Canadian comedian and political commentator, his job will be to keep the conversation and wine flowing at my dinner party.

I'd also like to find out how he votes.
















5. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall, having done so much for the chimpanzees in Africa, is a woman I admire enormously but she does look as if she needs a good belly laugh.

She's sitting between Rick Mercer and Julian Assange.

Hopefully she won't get into a quiet little tête-à-tête with JA.


Must warn Rick not to spend all of his time yukking it up with Harriett.
















6. Julian Assange

SEXY wilileaks bad boy is almost a living archetype of the hero with the fatal flaw.

He sits next to me!!

If I ply him with wine what secrets might he reveal???

That he likes older women? (dream on) Or that Stephen Harper was born in Kenya in a hut next to Barrack Obama?

 Can't wait for all of the gossip!












The second part of the challenge is to come up with a menu.


I will serve baked wild Pacific salmon with Ontario asparagus.


I will serve only Niagara wines of course.

(And lots of it if I want to find out how Rick Mercer votes.)




For dessert, butter tarts in the most delicate of pastry shells.

Butter tarts were invented in Northern Ontario in 1915 by the way. 

I just learned that today.




So there you have it.

My guests and my menu.




Now consider yourself tagged.

Your turn.



PS The painting of the Iroquois woman is not Molly Brant.  I took a generic photo from American classrooms on line, the other photos were from a free online service except for Rick Mercer's which was a publicity shot.