She began giving anti-slavery speeches throughout the northern United States and Canada as a representative of the Maine Anti-Slavery Society. Her speeches included her prose and poetry, in which she combined the issues of racism, feminism and classism.
Her beliefs were against every major oppression system, being racism, feminism, and classism.
In 1852, Harper took another teaching position in Pennsylvania. During this time, she lived in an Underground Railroad Station, where she witnessed the workings of the Underground Railroad and the movement of slaves toward freedom. This experience had a profound effect on Harper, her poetry and her later work as an activist. In 1854, Harper was exiled from Maryland because of new slavery laws stating that Black people who came in through the northern border of Maryland could be sold into slavery. This marked the beginning of Harper's activism.
After living through the first signs of the fall of slavery, she would start her career as an activist when more laws were added to oppress them.
William Watkins, a teacher at the Academy for Negro Youth and a radical political figure in civil rights. Watkins was a major influence on Harper's political, religious and social views.
Her first influence leading her to becoming an activist.