Biographical Details
- Born (1820 – March 10, 1913)
- Lived as a Child in Dorchester County, Maryland
- Born into slavery, beaten and harassed by masters and suffered a severe head injury involving a metal weight which caused many physical as well as mental problems including visionary experiences and seizures
- As a devout Christian Tubman ascribed her visions as revelations from God
- As a child, Harriet was often hired out to work for other slave masters oftentimes doing housework. As she grew older, she was sent to work in the fields with other slaves. These people worked in fields that produced many kinds of crops including corn, potatoes, tobacco, and cotton.
- After the war, Harriet Tubman returned to her home in Auburn, New York. Since her husband John Tubman died in 1867, she married a former slave and Union soldier, Nelson Davis in 1869.
- Tubman was an abolitionist who was herself a slave and sought for the institution to be abolished
- Tubman's vision was to give freedom to every black slave.
- Seeing how she and other slaves were so commonly mistreated, angered her.
- She wanted to see freed slaves based on her past experiences as a slave.
- She shared the dream that President Abraham Lincoln had in bringing freedom to the slaves in the South.
- The Quakers were opposed to slavery and had connections with the Underground Railroad. Different safe houses were a part of this secret system that aided slaves in their attempt to reach the North. Free blacks and sympathetic whites would help runaway slaves find food, shelter, transportation, and guide them on their trek.
- Much of Harriet's journey was during the night when it was easier to hide from slave hunters trying to recapture any escaped slaves. The North Star was her guide in the night that gave her hope and pointed her in the direction of freedom.
- Once past Pennsylvania, Harriet joined up with William Still, an abolitionist who she worked closely with to manage the underground railroad.
Achievements
- A woman with tremendous courage, strong as a man, and cunning as a fox was Harriet Tubman. She was unable to read or write and yet Harriet made 19 journeys back to the Southern States to help free over 300 slaves
- Harriet crossed the state line of Pennsylvania. She was a free woman. In overwhelming joy she said, "I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now I was free. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven
- Harriet soon joined the abolitionists and became a conductor for the railroad. Between 1850 and 1860, she saved money to make 19 trips to the South to free about 300 slaves.
- After years of eluding slave hunters, white slave owners posted a reward of $40,000 for her capture. With the help of her allies and well planned routes, Tubman was never captured and the reward was never collected.
- Harriet worked as a nurse, scout, and a spy for the Union and in 1863, she led a group of black soldiers under Colonel James Montgomery on a raid. Nearly 800 slaves were freed as a result.
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