| Harriet Tubman |
Article Index for Harriet |
Shopping Tubman |
Website Links For Harriet |
Information AboutHarriet Tubman |
|
Harriet Tubman (born 1820 or 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland , died March 10 , 1913 in Auburn, New York ), also known as ''Black Moses'', ''Grandma Moses'', or Moses of Her People, was an African-American Abolitionist . An escaped slave, she worked as a Lumberjack , laundress, nurse, and Cook . As an abolitionist, she acted as intelligence gatherer, refugee organizer, raid leader, Nurse , and fundraiser, all as part of the struggle for liberation from Slavery and Racism . EARLY LIFE Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland. Extensive research now reveals that Harriet Tubman was probably born in late February or early March, 1822, in an area south of Madison called Peter's Neck. Harriet herself claimed she was born sometime between 1820-1825. Born Araminta Ross, she was the fifth of nine children, four boys and five 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, including an incident where an overseer who she had prevented from capturing a runaway slave hurled a two-pound weight at her, striking her head. 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. ESCAPE AND ABOLITIONIST CAREER Edward Brodess died in early March 1849, leaving behind his wife, Eliza 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. On her way she was assisted by sympathetic Quaker s and other 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 more then 300 slaves to freedom in about 19 expeditions. She was never captured and, in her own words, "never lost a passenger." She also provided detailed instructions to many more who found their way to freedom on their own. 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. After the American Civil War, it was reported that there had been a $40,000 reward for Tubman's capture; but 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 beloved sister Rachel, and Rachel's two children, Ben and Angerine. Rachel died in 1859 before Harriet could rescue her. During the American Civil War , in addition to working as a cook and a nurse, she served as a Spy for the North. Again she was never captured, and she guided hundreds of people trapped in slavery into Union camps during the Civil War. In 1863, Tubman led a raid at Combahee River Ferry in Colleton County, South Carolina , allowing hundreds of slaves to run to their freedom. This was the first military operation in U.S. history planned and executed by a woman. Tubman, in disguise, had visited plantations in advance of the raid and instructed slaves to prepare to run in to the river where Union ships would be waiting for them. Union troops exchanged fire with Confederate troops in this incident; there were casualties on both sides. METHODS
|