Harriet Tubman

 Harriet Tubman



She was a heroine, who fought for our ancestors' rightful freedom. Throughout her life, she brought down tremendous barriers and possessed courage plus strength. Always an advocate for justice, Harriet Tubman gravitated her actions in the cause of social justice in order for real social change to transpire. She was born in the Eastern Shore region of Maryland. Not only did she escaped slavery into freedom audaciously. She freed many of her own family members plus hundreds of other black human beings from bondage. Harriet Tubman was a leader of the Underground Railroad, which was a network of pathways, varied routes, and safe houses that helped thousands of black human beings to escape the tyranny of slavery. People of diverse colors and creeds were active participants in the Underground Railroad too. As a humanitarian and an abolitionist, Harriet Tubman display an excellent amount of human compassion and personal conviction. Threats against her life and posters of rewards (from racist southern slave owners) for her capture didn't deter her at all. She persisted onward as a heroine of the ages. Tubman fought for the Union during the U.S. Civil War by spying and leading a raid (called the Combachee Raid on July 2, 1863. Colonel James Montgomery was part of it as well. Afterwards, more than 750 black people were freed. Many of them joined the Union Army) to defeat the Confederate, traitorous enemy. After the American Civil War, she continued to advocate for equality and suffrage (or giving women the right to vote). Harriet Tubman lived a long life into the early 20th century. Constantly fighting for freedom, Harriet Tubman exemplified greatness and forthright, glorious consciousness. She risked her life for us. We owe a lot to her activism, her tenacity, and her indispensable sacrifice. Therefore, it is time for everyone to give Harriet Tubman even a greater amount of credit including gratitude for her actions of valor and her unconditional love for black people.

Early Life


Harriet Tubman was born in ca. 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her original name was Araminta Ross. Her parents were slaves too. Their names were Harriet Green and Ben Ross. Rit was oppressed by Mary Pattison Brodess (and later her son Edward). Ben was oppressed by Anthony Thompson, who was Mary's second husband. Mary and Anthony ran a plantation near Blackwater River in Madison, Maryland. Also, Tubman's maternal grandmother arrived into America on a slave ship from Africa. She was told that she was of Ashanti lineage (which is found in Ghana. There is no evidence to confirm or deny the assertion). Harriet Tubman's mother, Rit, was a cook for the Brodess family. Ben was a skilled woodsman. He managed the timber work on Thompson's plantation. Rit and Ben married in ca. 1808. They had nine children together according to court records. Their names are: Linah, Mariah, Ritty, Soph, Robert, Minty (Harriet), Ben, Rachel, Henry, and Moses. Slavery threatened to split the family apart. Edward Brodess sold three of Rit's daughters and one son (Linah, Mariah, Ritty, and Soph). They were separated from the family permanently. One trader from Georgia wanted Brodess to buy Rit's youngest son, Moses. So, Harriet Tubman hid Moses for a month. She was assisted by other slaves and free black people in the community. Harriet Tubman confronted the slave owners about the sale. When Brodess and the Georgia man came into the slave quarters to try to seize the child, something happened. Rit told them, "You are after my son; but the first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open." Then, Brodess backed away and didn't participate in the sale. This even influenced Tubman's resistance mentality according to her biographers.



Tubman's mother worked in the "big house." She struggled to find time for her family. Tubman took care of a younger brother and baby. Harriet Tubman worked for a woman named Miss Susan when she was five or six years old. She was a nursemaid. She took care of a baby. She was lashed five times before breakfast on one day. She had those scars for the rest of her life. She resisted by running away for five days. Harriet Tubman fought back and wore layers of clothing to protect herself from the beatings. She also worked for a planter named James Cook. She checked the muskrat traps in marshes. She had the measles. She was so sick that she went to the Brodess and her mother healed her. As she became older, she did field and forest work. She drove oxen, plowed, and hauled logs. She was illiterate as a child. She believed in God and in the deliverance sections of the Old Testament. She was inspired by spirituality throughout her life.



She was beaten constantly by slave owners in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was hit in the head when she was hit by a heavy metal weight. That injury caused her to have epileptic seizures, headaches, visions, and dream experiences. This existed throughout her life. This occurred after one time, the adolescent Tubman was sent to a dry goods store for supplies. She saw a slave owned by another family, who had left the fields without permission. His overseer wanted her to help restrain the slave. She refused. The slave ran away. The overseer threw a 2 pound weight at him. It struck her. Her hair saved her life. She was unconscious and bleeding. She had no medical care for 2 days. It was a miracle that she survived. She was sent back to the fields. She had blood and sweat on her face. Some believe that she had temporal lobe epilepsy as a product from the injury. She had seizures and many like minded episodes.

Escape from Slavery




On 1840, Tubman's father (or Ben) was manumitted from slavery at the age of 45. This was stipulated in a former owner's will. His actual age was closer to 55. He worked as a timber estimator and foreman for the Thompson family. Years later, Tubman used a white attorney to investigate her mother's legal status. He was paid 5 dollars. The lawyer found that a former owner had issued instructions that Rit like her husband would be manumitted by 45 years old. The record showed a similar provision to Rit's children and any children born after she reached 45 years old age were legally free. The Pattison and Brodess families ignored this document. Tubman wanted to free her family. At 1844, Harriet Tubman married a free black man. His name was John Tubman. It was a complicated union since Tubman was once a slave during this time. Blended marriage of free people of color marrying enslaved people were common in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Half of the black population in that region was free. Most African American families had both free and enslaved members. Tubman changed her name from Arminta to Harriet after her marriage. She might have adopted her mother's name out of religious conversion or to honor another relative.



Harriet Tubman was ill again in 1849. Edward Brodess tried to sell her, but no one would buy her. She was angry at slavery and her family suffering. So, Tubman Harriet Tubman prayed for the owner to change his ways. She said later: "I prayed all night long for my master till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me." When it appeared as though a sale was being concluded, "I changed my prayer," she said. "First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way." A week later, Brodess died, and Tubman expressed regret for her earlier sentiments. Brodess's death could have increased the likelihood that Tubman would be sold and her family broken apart. His widow was Eliza. Eliza worked to sell the family's slaves. Then, Tubman decided to escape. She didn't wait for Eliza to continue evil any longer among her and her family. "[T]here was one of two things I had a right to," she explained later, "liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other." Tubman was hired out to Dr. Anthony Thompson. He owned a large plantation in Popular Neck in neighboring Caroline County. On September 17, 1849, Tubman (and her brothers Ben and Henry) escaped from slavery. Eliza didn't realize her escape for a time, because the slaves were hired out for some time. Eliza posted a runaway notice in the Cambridge Democrat. Eliza offered 100 dollars for each slave returned. Tubman's brothers had second thoughts in the beginning. Ben may have just became a father. The 2 men went back. Tubman returned with them.



Later, Tubman escaped again. She left without her brothers. She tried to tell her mother of her plans. She sang a coded song to Mary, a trusted fellow slave, that was a farewell. "I'll meet you in the morning," she intoned, "I'm bound for the promised land." Harriet Tubman used the Underground Railroad to help her travel into the North. The Underground Railroad was made up of organized system of free and enslaved black people plus abolitionists including other activists. One large member of the network were the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers. The Preston area near Poplar Neck in Caroline County contained a substantial Quaker community and was probably an important first stop during Tubman's escape. She took a route northeast along the Choptank River via Delaware and then north into Pennsylvania. She traveled almost 90 miles. She walked by foot. This took from 5 days to three weeks. She used the North Star to travel by night. She avoided slave catchers. The conductors of the Underground Railroad were very successful. Tubman traveled into a friendly house and hid in many locales. She knew of the land. She was happy to reach Pennsylvania. She said that it felt like Heaven to be free.



She was called Moses by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison because of her courageous actions. Moses was from the story of Exodus who freed Hebrews from slavery in ancient Egypt She worked in Maryland to rescue people. Moses was used in code via songs like Go Down Moses to signal her act to free her people. She changed the tempo of singing to mention whether it was either safe or too dangerous. Go Down Moses song was sung by black regiments during the Civil War and it's song today to pay tribute to Tubman and to various struggles for freedom.



Harriet Tubman traveled into Philadelphia. She missed her father, mother, brothers, and sisters. She saved money by working jobs. The evil Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 wanted to punished slaves who escaped. It funded law enforcement to kidnap black people. Many black people sought refuse in Southern Ontario. Ontario banned slavery by that time. In Philadelphia, many poor Irish immigrants competed with free black people for work increasing racial tensions. On December 1850, Harriet Tubman was told something. It was about her niece Kessiah and her two children (6 year old James Alfred and baby Araminta) about to be sold in Cambridge. She came into action to stop this. She came into Baltimore where her brother in law Tom Tubman hid her until the sale. Kessiah's husband was a free black man named John Bowley. Bowley, Kessiah, and their children escaped into a nearby safe house. By night, Bowley sailed the family to Baltimore where they met Tubman. Tubman brought the family to Philadelphia. During the next spring, Harriet Tubman helped to free her other family members. During this second trip, Tubman found her brother Moses and 2 other men. She might have worked with the Quaker Thomas Garrett in Wilmington, Delaware. He was an abolitionist. She was more confident with each trip and her family knew of her heroism. She worked with many people. She said in 1897 (in an interview with Wilbur Siebert) that she stayed with many black and white people like ministers, activists, and families to help free people.



She came back into Dorchester County in the fall of 1851. She wanted to find her husband John. Yet, John was married to another woman named Caroline. John wanted to stay put. She freed more slaves and led them to Philadelphia. John and Caroline lived together and John was killed 16 years later in an argument with a white man named Robert Vincent. Many slaves went into Southern Ontario because of the Fugitive Slave act made it more difficult for black people in the North. She led others to escape slavery in December 1851. They could have stopped in the home of Frederick Douglass as his third autobiography mentioned 11 people at his house before. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass admired each other a great deal. Harriet Tubman freed more people in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She freed her brothers Henry, Ben and Robert (plus their wives and children). She worked in the winter. She used spirituals in coded messages to help those to freedom. She carried a revolver to defend herself. She didn't allow others to go back. Harriet Tubman was never captured.  Years later, she told an audience: "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." She led many of her relatives into Ontario, Canada.

Harriet Tubman's Continued Activism



By April of 1858, Tubman met abolitionist John Brown. Brown wanted to use self defense and violence to end slavery in America. She didn't agree with violence against whites, but she agreed with the goal of ending slavery in America. Both of them believed that God told them to fight the evil of slavery. She said that she had a prophetic vision of meeting Brown before their encounter. Brown wanted to attack Harpers Ferry to get people to organize a revolt against slavery. She called her General Tubman. She knew of networks and resources in the border states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Brown wanted her expertise. Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison didn't agree with the Harpers Ferry raid. Tubman organized former slaves to meet with John Brown. John Brown had a meeting in Chatham, Ontario to show his plan for the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia on May 8, 1858. Brown put the act on hold when the government knew of his plans. Tubman aided him in the effort. Tubman spoke to abolitionist audiences and helping her relatives. Brown prepared for the attack. October 16, 1859 was when the raid took place. Tubman wasn't there. The raid failed and Brown was hanged as a martyr. He was hanged in December 1859. Tubman praised John Brown as a hero. In early 1859, abolitionist Republican U.S. Senator William H. Seward sold Tubman land near Auburn, New York for $1,200. The city was where antislavery activism was real. She was friends with many people in the area. Her relatives lived in Auburn too. Later, Harriet returned back from Maryland with her niece and a young black girl named Margaret. November 1860 was the time of her last rescue mission. She rescued sister Rachels' two children Ben and Angerine. Rachel died. They lived in the home of David and Martha Wright in Auburn, New York on December 28, 1860.

The American Civil War



During the American Civil War, Harriet Tubman worked with the Union to end slavery. General Benjamin Butler aided escaped slavery coming into Fort Monroe. Tubman worked with Union abolitionists in Boston and Philadelphia. She worked in Port Royal, South Carolina with black newly freed people. She worked with abolitionist General David Hunter. Hunter organized black regiments. Abraham Lincoln reprimanded Hunter for his actions and Tubman criticized Lincoln. She helped aiding soldiers in Port Royal. She scouted areas and used her efforts to aid the Combahee River Raid. That was in South Carolina. She helped to liberate black men, women, and children. That was when Tubman was the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War. Montgomery was involved too. It happened on June 2, 1863.  She knew of the land, because the marshes and rivers in South Carolina were similar to those of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The raid freed more than 750 slaves. Newspapers praised Tubman's energy, patriotism, and integrity. She worked with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw at the assault on Fort Wagner. This event was shown in the film Glory. She worked with intelligence alongside with Colonel James Montgomery and gave intelligence that aided the capture of Jacksonville, Florida. Tubman worked for the Union continuously. She liberated slaves and nursed the wounded soldiers in Virginia. She cared for her parents too. The Confederacy surrendered on April of 1865. Tubman went home to Auburn, New York.

Later Life



She was assaulted in a train ride to New York. The conductor wanted her to go into the smoking car. She refused as she worked for the government. He cursed at her. He grabbed her and she defended herself as she had every right to do. He called 2 other passengers for help. She clutched at the railing. The men broke her arm at the railing. They threw her in the smoking car causing her more injuries. She was cursed at by more white passengers and some wanted her to leave the train. She wasn't paid a regularly salary. She was denied compensation. She was disrespected by racists. Her family was in poverty and she had difficulties in getting wealth. She lived in Auburn, New York.  Nelson Charles Davis helped Tubman. He was 5 foot 11 inch tall. He was the veteran of the 8th United States Colored Infantry. He was 22 younger than her, but they fell in love and married on March 18, 1869. They wed at the Central Presbyterian Church. They adopted a baby girl Gertie in 1874 and the lived as a family. Nelson died of tuberculosis on October 14, 1888. Sarah Hopkins Bradford (who admired Tubman) wrote an authorized biography entitled Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. The 132-page volume was published in 1869, and brought Tubman some US$1,200 in revenue. She wrote Harriet, the Moses of her People in 1886. Tubman faced debts. It would be until 1899 that the government increased Tubman's pension after she petitioned Congress to do so in 1898. She promoted women's suffrage or women having the right to vote. She promoted equality. She traveled into New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. to promote women voting rights.



She spoke at the first meeting of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in 1896. She worked in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn in 1903. She donated land to the church. She wanted to helped elderly black people. The Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged opened on June 23, 1908. She had brain surgery to deal with the seizures. By 1911, her body became frail. She died of pneumonia in 1913. She was surrounded by friends and family. Just before she died, she told those in the room: "I go to prepare a place for you." She was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.

Her Legacy



She inspired African Americans who desired equality and civil rights. She has been by people of all races as a heroic black woman and people from across the political spectrum respect her a great deal. The city of Auburn displayed a commemorative plaque erected in 1914 that celebrated the achievements of Sister Harriet Tubman. She was a hero. The Harriet Tubman home is now a museum and educational center. By March of 2013, President Barack Obama signed a proclamation creating the Underground Railroad National Monument on the Eastern Shore. Harriet Tubman was posthumously inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. Today, we honor her heroism and sacrifice for us.

By Timothy