Hero

John Parker: What makes an American Hero?

          Do you have to be a marvel super hero to be considered as an American hero like superman or spider man? Not at all, this land of America has so many heroes that up to this day we have no clue of who some of our real super heroes are. One of our heroes is John Parker. I consider john parker as a legend for most of the things he did in his time. John Parker was a former African American slave who eventually purchased his own freedom and was a major figure in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.  John was born in Virginia in 1827 to a white black mother and a white father. At the age of eight he witness what was to change is life forever. He was chained to an elderly man who man was severely whipped, and he died. “This old man was kind to me, he made my weight of the chain as light as he could. HE was the only human being who was interested in me”. He meant a lot to him after being separated from his mother.

This experience hugely affected Parker, and from that very day, he was determined to obtain freedom but to do so, there were a lot of adventures that had to be explored. It all started when parker was sold along with 400 other slaves to a man in Alabama.  The slaves walked all the way from Virginia to Alabama. At the age of fourteen, Parker asked a woman from Mobile to purchase his freedom if he would pay the amount plus interest back to her.  The woman’s name was Mrs. Ryder.  She purchased Parker’s freedom for $1800.00.  He paid her $10.00 each week until the full amount plus interest was paid.  It took him four years to pay the debt to the woman, and he finally became a free man at the age of eighteen.

But what made Parker John Parker? He had tremendous heroic qualities. I personally think that this guy was sent from above. Heroes think that they will never lose a battle and always come out victorious. One thing that made parker think this way was when he quoted “ I could get away with things and not be...