Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman
Occupation	Abolitionist
Spouse(s)	John Tubman, Nelson Davies
Parent(s)	Ben and Harriet Greene Ross

Harriet Tubman (c. 1820?–March 10, 1913), also known as "Moses of Her People," was an African-American abolitionist. An escaped slave, she made approximately 20 voyages to rescue about 300 enslaved friends and family to freedom in Canada. During her lifetime she worked as a lumberjack, laundress, nurse, and cook. As an abolitionist, she acted as intelligence gatherer, refugee organizer, raid leader, nurse, and fundraiser.

Early life

Born Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland, she was the fifth of 11 children, five boys and six girls, of Ben and Harriet Greene Ross. She rarely lived with her owner, Edward Brodess, but from the age of six was frequently hired out to other masters. She endured inhumane treatment from some masters, bearing the scars of beatings until the day she died at age 91. As a young teen she was nearly killed by a severe blow to her head from a dry goods store weight, thrown by an overseer who was attempting to capture another runaway slave. As a result of the severe blow, she suffered intermittent epileptic seizures for the rest of her life. During this period Edward Brodess sold three of Harriet's sisters, Linah, Soph, and Mariah Ritty.

When she was a young adult, she took the name Harriet, possibly in honor of her mother. Around 1844, she married John Tubman, a free black man. When she ran away from Maryland, he did not join her, but rather continued his free life in Dorchester County without her. John Tubman was killed during a roadside argument near Cambridge, Maryland in 1867.

Edward Brodess died in early March 1849, leaving behind his wife, Eliza Ann Brodess, and eight children. To pay her dead husband's mounting debts and to save her small farm from seizure, Eliza decided to sell some of the family's slaves. Fearing sale into the Deep South, Tubman took her emancipation into her own hands. Sometime in the fall of 1849 she escaped northward, leaving behind her free husband who did not want to follow. Two of her brothers, who were also going to be sold down south, began the journey with her, but then decided to turn back. Tubman went on alone. On the way she was assisted by members of the Abolitionist movement, both black and white, who were instrumental in maintaining the Underground Railroad.

Called "Moses" by those she helped escape on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made many trips to Maryland to help other slaves escape. According to her estimates and those of her close associates, Tubman personally guided about 70 slaves to freedom in about 13 expeditions and gave instructions to another 70 who found their way to freedom independently. She was never captured and, in her own words, "never lost a passenger." Her owner, Eliza Brodess, posted a $100 reward for her return, but no one ever knew that it was Harriet Tubman who was responsible for spiriting away so many slaves from her old neighborhood in Maryland.

Tubman worked as a spy for the North during the American Civil War. Tubman was the first American woman to plan and lead a military operation, the raid at Combahee Ferry, in 1863. This raid freed over 750 slaves.

After the American Civil War, it was reported that there had been a $40,000 reward for Tubman's capture. This was a myth to further dramatize Harriet's greatness in the post-war period. She was successful in bringing away her parents and her four brothers — Ben, Robert, Henry, and Moses — but failed to rescue her sister Rachel, and Rachel's two children, Ben and Angerine. Rachel died in 1859 before Harriet could rescue her.

Post Civil War

She was an activist for African American and women's rights. With Sarah Bradford acting as her biographer and transcribing her stories, she was able to have a brief story of her life published in 1869 as Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. This was of considerable help to her financial state—she was not awarded a government pension for her military service until some 30 years after the fact. That same year she married Nelson Davis, another Civil War veteran. They lived together in the home she purchased in Auburn, New York, from her friend, United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. Tubman was surrounded by family and friends who chose to settle near her in Auburn, NY after the Civil War.

File:1744.jpg

Tubman on a US stamp, 1978

Eventually, because of arthritis and fragile health, Harriet Tubman moved into a home for sick and aged African Americans that she had helped found . It was built on land which she had purchased, abutting her own property in Auburn. She told stories of her adventures until her death on March 10, 1913. She was given a full military burial. In her honor, a memorial plaque was placed on the Cayuga County Courthouse in Auburn, NY. Harriet Tubman is honored every March 10, the day of her death. She is also commemorated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on that same day. In 1944, a US Liberty ship named the SS Harriet Tubman was launched.

On February 1, 1978, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Tubman, as part of its longrunning Black Heritage Series. Designed by Jerry Pinckney, the design includes both a portrait and a cart carrying slaves, adapted from a photograph..

See also

• List of African-American abolitionists
• Slave narrative
• African American literature
• Underground Railroad

References

• Humez, Jean. Harriet Tubman: The Life and Life Stories. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 2003
• Larson, Kate Clifford. Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004.
• E. M. Anderson (2006). Home, Miss Moses. Higganum, CT: Higganum Hill Books. ISBN 0-9776556-0-1.
• "Work uncovers site where raid freed 700 slaves". Retrieved December 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• Full text of Jailbreak Out Of History, a re-biography of Harriet Tubman, by Butch Lee
• Full text of Harriet, The Moses of Her People, from Project Gutenberg
• Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman fulltext
• Harriet Tubman Biography Page
• Animated biography of Harriet Tubman at IMDb on Interactive DVD
• Post Civil War portrait of Harriet Tubman and family Note: This photograph ID {c/o author Kate Clifford Larson Ph.D.} Left to right: Harriet Tubman; Gertie Davis {Watson} (adopted daughter of Tubman} behind Tubman; Nelson Davis (husband and 8th USCT veteran); Lee Cheney {great-great-niece}; "Pop" {John} Alexander; Walter Green; Blind "Aunty" Sarah Parker; Dora Stewart {great-niece and granddaughter of Tubman's brother Robert Ross aka John Stewart). {Note: Stewart is sometimes cropped out of this photograph.}