Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Maryland and became an activist and conductor of the Underground Railroad, leading over 300 slaves to freedom. She suffered abuse from her masters and showed a desire to help others from a young age. She escaped slavery and returned to help others, even rescuing her parents. Tubman’s escape plans were well-planned and she also served in the Union Army during the Civil War. She died in 1913.
Born around 1820, Harriet Tubman was a slave turned activist and conductor of the Underground Railroad. She led over 300 slaves from slavery in the South to freedom in the North. She spent about 10 years helping slaves escape their masters and she is estimated to have made a total of 19 trips.
Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Maryland. She became a maid when she was about five or six years old. Around the age of 12 or 13 she began working in her slave master’s fields. Even at a young age, she Tubman suffered at the hands of her slave masters, often enduring beatings.
Harriet Tubman showed a desire to help others early on. When she was still a teenager, she tried to protect another slave from an overseer by standing in the doorway to prevent the overseer from reaching the other slave. The overseer picked up a 2-pound weight (907.18 grams) and threw it to the other slave, missing and hitting Tubman on the head. This blow was strong enough to cause her to suffer deep sleep spells, often at the most inopportune times. She also suffered from seizures and severe headaches.
In 1844, Tubman married a man named John Tubman, who was a free black man. This is how she earned the name Tubman, as she was born Araminta Ross. She at one point changed her name to Harriet, wishing to take her name from her mother. In 1849, she Harriet Tubman feared being sold, so she decided to run away, fleeing to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Once there, she didn’t just move on with her life. Instead, she decided to go back and help other slaves escape. She worked for about a year, saving money, and then came back for her family and other slaves.
Sadly, Harriet Tubman would not be reunited with her husband. On her third trip home, she discovered that her husband had already remarried. However, she Tubman did not let this stop her from seeking freedom for other slaves. She continued to return to the South and help other slaves escape until 1960. She even rescued her parents, who were in their 70s at the time.
Tubman’s escape plans were never simple or ill-conceived. He sometimes used a slave master’s horse and buggy for parts of the journey, and often departed on Saturdays, as messages of missing slaves would not arrive in the papers until Monday. He carried with him a drug that he used to calm crying children, and was smart enough to turn around and head back south if he encountered men hunting slaves along the way. Harriet is also said to have carried a pistol with which to threaten slaves who were so frightened or tired of her wanting to turn back. She told them they would be free or die.
Harriet Tubman was also adept at avoiding capture. Once, after reading a poster advertising a reward for his capture of her, she discovered that she claimed to be illiterate, which she clearly was not. To fool the slave hunters, she sat down and started reading a book. Her plan worked and she remained unknown.
Tubman’s heroism didn’t stop at helping slaves escape. He enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War and helped by cooking and nursing wounded soldiers. Eventually, he became an explorer, leading armed troops on the Combahee River Expedition, which freed several hundred slaves. After the war, she returned to New York, where she worked and cared for her aging parents, becoming active in the women’s suffrage movement. She died in 1913.
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