Like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman could neither read nor write, yet she was a woman of uncommon courage, cleverness and focus. Called “Moses of Her People,” she led more than 300 people out of the bondage of slavery to freedom. She was born to Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross, who as slaves were not allowed to marry. Marriage for slaves was illegal under the laws of slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland where Harriet was born in 1821.
Tubman suffered under the terrible brutality of slavery. As a child she was considered “stupid” and was whipped repeatedly. She hated working in the house near the mistress and did whatever she could to seem unfit for house work. Even as a young child she longed to be outside, as far from the eyes of the slave owners as possible. She developed enormous physical strength and endurance by working as a fieldhand, although she was only five feet two inches tall.
When Harriet was about sixteen years old an incident occurred that is said to be a key to the later Harriet Tubman. She had been hired out as a field hand. While she and the other slaves were husking corn, a slave of a farmer named Barrett stood aside from the others and ran away. The overseer followed him and so did Harriet. The overseer trapped the slave in a village store. As he began to tie him up, he called on Harriet to help by holding the slave. Harriet refused and the slave escaped, running past Harriet and out the door. At the same time that she placed herself in the door to stop the pursuit, the overseer picked up a two-pound weight from the store counter and threw it at the fugitive. It fell short and struck Harriet. It was a devastating blow to the head. She now had a symbol of bondage literally stamped on her head. The concave dent in her skull was a mark that remained with her for the rest of her life.
It took her almost a year to recover. No doctor was sent to help. For months she lay on a bundle of rags in her parents’ cabin, trying not to cry out in pain. She lay there sleeping and dreaming. Before she was well her owner tried to sell her. He would bring potential buyers down the dirt path to the cabin. The prospective buyers shook their heads. After one look at the wounded girl and her scrawny body, they turned away. Harriet later stated that no one would give a sixpence for her.
She finally did recover her strength when she was about nineteen years old, but she developed what was called “spells of sleep”.(11) At any time, whether she was in the midst of conversation or working in the fields she would suddenly fall into a deep sleep. This was clearly a residue from the terrible blow she had received. Because of these periods of what was perceived as a stupor by her owners, they now found her totally uncommunicative.
They believed that she was now a “half-wit”.(12) All this time she was, as she later said, thinking faster and clearer than ever. She knew slavery must change. Slaves from near and far would meet under cover of night to talk about the stories that were circulating throughout the land. There was information about the slave uprisings of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner. All this was not lost on the young Harriet, who began to plan her escape.
When Harriet had made her plans to escape she went to the big house to tell her sister. She had to tell someone who could be trusted. She drew her sister out of doors to tell her, but at that moment the master rode up. To keep him from becoming suspicious, Harriet broke into song. This melody was sung in church, but it was also sung by escaping slaves. The song was to let her sister know that she was escaping.
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I’m sorry I’m going to leave you,
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Farewell, oh farewell,
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But I’ll meet you in the morning,
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Farewell, oh farewell.
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I’ll meet you in the morning,
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I’m bound for the promised land,
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On the other side of Jordan,
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Bound for the promised land.
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I’ll meet you in the morning,
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Safe in the promised land,
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On the other side of Jordan,
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Bound for the promised land.(13)
There was a white woman in the region whom Harriet had seen many times. Each time she saw her the woman would tell her that if she ever needed help to come to her house. Many whites in the South helped slaves to escape to the North. Usually they were Quakers; some were Southern abolitionists.
Harriet had made a bed quilt which she prized. She gave this bed quilt to the white woman. The woman gave her a paper with names on it, and directions. The directions guided her to the first house where she would receive help. When Harriet reached the first house, she showed a woman there the paper. Harriet was given a broom and told to sweep the yard. At first Harriet was surprised, but she did as she was told. She soon realized that no one would suspect her of being a runaway slave. Any passerby would simply see a usual sight, a Negro girl working in the yard. The woman’s husband was a farmer who came home in the early evening. After dark, he loaded a wagon, put her in it, covered her, and drove to another town, giving her directions to the next station.
Harriet became a “conductor” for the Underground Railroad. She escaped from slavery when she was twenty-five years old. She said when she touched the free soil of Pennsylvania she was overcome by emotion.
When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. 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.(14)
Harriet was thrilled to be free, but she could not forget her mother, father, sisters, and brothers still cruelly enslaved. She was free, and she vowed that her relatives in Maryland would be free. Here as a free person she could choose her employer, and earn wages. She did menial labor, cooking, cleaning, laundering in hotels and clubhouses. She changed employment often to gain more income and better working conditions. Even on her small wages she saved her money, determined to find a way to free her loved ones.
Not long after she arrived in Philadelphia she met a black man named William Still. He was called the chief “brakeman” on the Underground Railroad. William Still was the director of the Vigilance Committee. This was a group of blacks and whites who helped fugitive slaves to get to the North. He kept records of the slaves that came through that city, records that we have to this day. The Quakers and others in this Abolitionist group raised funds for the Underground Railroad, employed black people, boycotted Southern made products, and wrote anti-slavery literature. From them Harriet learned that hundreds of blacks were passing back and forth from the North and South bringing groups of fugitives to freedom. Now Harriet began her great accomplishments. She became a “conductor “ on the Underground Railroad.
Harriet Tubman brought over 300 slaves to freedom. When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 she made sure most of the former slaves got to Canada. She said that she no longer trusted that they would be safe in America. Harriet was so effective in eluding capture that her enemies put a bounty on her head of $40,000. All the while she was aided by Northern abolitionists. She successfully brought her family to freedom. In 1857 she was given property in Auburn, New York; it was there that she brought her old parents to live. She concentrated her efforts in freeing slaves from Maryland. She knew the region so well and she felt that by helping liberate so many slaves from that one region she would make a strong impact on ridding Maryland of contented slaveholders.
Harriet was first a cook for the Union soldiers during the Civil War, and then became a scout. She wore many hats during the Civil War. She did service as a spy and then near the end of the war she served as a nurse.
After the War she gave her enormous energy to caring for indigent African-Americans, establishing a home for those in need on her property in Auburn. She died there on March 10, 1913 and was given military last rites.
At a meeting of suffragists in a church in Rochester, New York sometime in the late eighteen nineties Harriet Tubman was honored for her work in the Underground Railroad. This is part of what she said to the assembly.
“Yes, ladies, I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say—I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”(15)