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Harriet Ross was born in Dorchester County, Maryland Plantation in 1820. Her parents were from the Ashanti tribe of West Africa, and they worked as slaves on the Brodas plantation. Their master was very abusive at nights she had to sleep on the kitchen floor, to keep warm she would put her feet in the fireplace ashes. Harriet was hired out as a laborer by the age of 5. Harriet did not like to work indoors, and her masters routinely beat her. By her early teens, Harriet was no longer allowed to work indoors and was hired out as a field hand.
She was a hard worker but considered defiant and rebellious. When she was 15 years old, Harriet tried to help a runaway slave. The overseer hit her in the head with a lead weight, which put Harriet in a coma. It took months for her to recover, and for the rest of her life, Harriet suffered from blackouts.
In 1844, Harriet married a free black man named John Tubman. (She was born Araminta Ross; she later changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother. ). Harriet remained a slave, but she was able to stay in Tubman's cabin at night. Although she was married, Harriet lived in fear of being shipped to the Deep South, a virtual death sentence for any slave. In 1849, her owner of the Brodas plantation died and many of the slaves were to be sold.
After hearing of her fate, Harriet planned to escape that very night. She knew her husband would expose her, so the only person she informed was her sister She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. This was a strong and self-willed woman, Harriet made the 90 mile trip to the Mason-Dixon line with the help of contacts along the Underground Railroad. She had to hike through swamps and woodland.
Harriet's trip was successful, and she settled in Philadelphia. She worked as a dishwasher and made plans to rescue her family. The next year, Harriet traveled back to Maryland and rescued her sister's family. Tubman returned to the South again and again. She devised clever techniques that helped make her "forays" successful, including using the master's horse and buggy for the first leg of the journey. Leaving on a Saturday night, since runaway notices couldn't be placed in newspapers until Monday morning turning about and heading south if she encountered possible slave hunters.
And carrying a drug to use on a baby if its crying might put the fugitives in danger. Tubman even carried a gun she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, "You " ll be free or die. " By 1856, Tubman's capture would have brought a $ 40, 000 reward from the South. On one occasion, she overheard some men reading her wanted poster, which stated that she was illiterate. She promptly pulled out a book and feigned reading it. The ploy was enough to fool the men. She went back for her husband, but he had remarried and did not want to follow her.
In 1857, She then returned to transport her brothers to the North. Harriet finally returned for her parents and settled them in Auburn, New York. On her third return, she went after her husband, only to find he had taken another wife. Undeterred, she found other slaves seeking freedom and escorted them to the North. By 1856, Tubman's capture would have brought a $ 40, 000 reward from the South. On one occasion, she overheard some men reading her wanted poster, which stated that she was illiterate.
She promptly pulled out a book and feigned reading it. The ploy was enough to fool the men. By this time, Harriet was becoming quite well known and huge rewards were offered for her capture. Harriet was the master of disguise A former master did not even recognize her when they ran into each other on the street. She was nicknamed the "Moses of her people" for leading them to freedom.
Tubman had made the perilous trip to slave country 19 times by 1860, including one especially challenging journey in which she rescued her 70 -year-old parents. Of the famed heroine, who became known as "Moses, " Frederick Douglass said, "Excepting John Brown -- of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than [Harriet Tubman]. "And John Brown, who conferred with "General Tubman" about his plans to raid Harpers Ferry, once said that she was "one of the bravest persons on this continent. " With the arrival of the Civil War, Harriet became a spy for the Union army. She later worked in Washington DC as a government nurse. Although Harriet won admiration from the military, she did not receive a government pension for more than 30 years.
At the end of the war, Harriet returned to her parents in Auburn. She was extremely poor and the profits of a book by Sarah Bradford entitled Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, published in 1869 were a financial great help. In 1870, Harriet married Nelson Davis, who she had met at a South Carolina army base. They were happily married for 18 years until Davis' death.
In 1896, Harriet purchased land to build a home for sick and needy blacks. However, she was unable to raise enough money to build the house and ultimately gave the land to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The church completed the home in 1908, and Harriet moved there several years later. She spent her last years in the home telling stories of her life to visitors. On March 10, 1913, Harriet died of pneumonia. She was 93 years old.
I really enjoyed this book, a woman who had accomplished many things in her life. She had did something that most slave could not do and that was overcoming the boundaries of slavery. She helped save many lives and while risking her own. Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors. " During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, "in all my years I never lost a single passenger. " Harriet Tubman was not afraid to fight for the rights of African-Americans.
Her story is one of dedication and inspiration. During her lifetime Harriet was honored by many people. In 1897, her bravery even inspired Queen Victoria to award her a silver medal.
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Research essay sample on Of Underground Railroad Heroine Harriet Tubman
