“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs.”
– Leo Tolstoy
Note: photograph is of Leo Tolstoy from 1897.
Photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Tolstoy_1897,_black_and_white,_37767u.jpg
“Let the generations know that women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom.”
– Mary Edwards Walker, Medal of Honor recipient.
Mary was a doctor before the Civil War broke out in the U.S. She tried to join the Union Army as a surgeon when the war started, but was only offered the opportunity to be a nurse because of her gender. She declined and instead joined as a civilian volunteer to be a surgeon. In 1863, she became a War Department surgeon, a paid position.
“I had crossed the line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom, I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with the old folks, and my brothers and sisters. But to this solemn resolution I came; I was free, and they should be free also; I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all there.”
– Harriet Tubman
